Week 6 Story: Ganga the River Goddess

 

Ganga the River Goddess: Wikimedia Commons

Once there was a beautiful woman whose hair flowed like a river. She always had a lovely white lily in her hair as well as all over her clothes. During the day, she loved spending her time on the side of the river looking for more lilies to add to her collection. 

One day while she was performing her lily hunt, a handsome young man appeared from out of the woods. He was immediately in love and begged for her hand in marriage. She agreed, but only if he would allow her all of the freedom in the world and that he never questioned her motives. He agrees without second thought and they become married. This man, we discover, was actually a King! His name was Santanu. 

They lived a very happy life, as she was a perfect spouse. Santanu wondered what freedom she possibly could request that he needed to question. She was spectacular in every way. Eventually, his wife and him have a baby son, who he loves very much. However, his wife took the baby down to the river and drowned him. Santanu was heartbroken and shocked, but he did not want to question her, as he did not want to lose her too. Each time they had a child together, she performed the same ritual and returned to the palace as happy as she could be with a new handful of lilies.

Once the eighth child was born, Santanu could not handle it anymore. He followed her to the river and begged her to stop before she reached the water's edge. The wife was calm and agreed to spare the baby; however, she had to leave him. Santanu begs for her to explain.

His wife was indeed very beautiful and special, but not entirely human. She was in fact the deity of the river: Ganga. She told him that she had taken human form in order to give birth to the babies that only Santanu was worthy to give.  However, these were no ordinary babies. They were actually human forms of Indra's attendants that had been cursed for stealing a sage's cow. She had gently returned the babies to the river so that their souls could return to the heavens to be with Indra.

After hearing this explanation, she tells Santanu that she must take the child with her. However, she will return him in his youth. She then takes the baby and heads towards the river where her makara awaited her. The creature had the head of a crocodile but the tail of the dolphin. She sat down on it and it swiftly and gently took her and the child under the water.

Santanu was shocked as well as heartbroken, as he also lost his beautiful wife. He sat by the river for many hours until sunset. While he sat there with his feet dangling in the water, lilies surrounded him.

Author's Note: This story is the first part of The Mahabharata. I kept the context of the story pretty much the same. However, I added in the part with the lilies as well as Ganga's makara. The lily flower and her makara is seen throughout Ganga's history. She is usually depicted as holding a water lily in her right hand as she is upon her makara. I decided to add her makara, as my storybook project is about the vahanas of the gods. The makara is Ganga's vahana.

Bibliography: Narayan, R K. The Mahabharata. The University of Chicago Press, 1978.