June Festivals

Ganga Dussehra

The first ten days of the month Jyeshth, known as Dashahara, are dedicated to honour the river Ganges. It is believed that if one offers prayers on this day, one attains salvation from ten sins. The festival's name Dussehra is derived from 'Dus' which connotes ten and ' hara' which means defeat. Thus the name Ganga Dusshera.

People believe that by bathing in the Ganga sins are washed away. The principle centres for the worship of the Ganga are Gangotri, the source of the river; Haridwar, where she comes down to the plains; Allahabad, where she joins the Yamuna; Varanasi, the holy city; and Sagara Island in her estuary where she finally flows into the Bay of Bengal.

In the evening, thousands of leaf boats laden with flames, flowers, and sweetmeats are offered to the river and they flow with the current to the sounds of the bells and bhajans, kirtans and shlokas recited during the arati.

Myth I

According to another legend, King Sagara of the Ikshvaku dynasty ruling at Ayodhya had two queens, Keshani and Sumati, but neither had a child. Sagara performed severe austerities before his wives could produce sons. But whereas Keshani gave birth to a son called Asmajas, Sumati bore 60,000 sons. Sagara performed the Ashwamedha sacrifice to declare his suzerainty over the neighbouring kingdoms. According to the prevalent custom, the sacrificial horse were let loose and allowed to wander into the neighbouring kingdoms.

If the horse was caught, a battle ensued and the outcome decided the winner. The 60,000 sons of Sagara were following the horse when they saw him enter a cavern where sage Kapila was meditating. Not seeing the horse in the cavern, they presumed that Kapila had captured it. They did not kill Kapila as he was a sage but they started disturbing his meditations. Annoyed at being disturbed, Kapila with a curse burnt the 60,000 sons of Sagara.

Time passed and later Bhagiratha, the great grandson of Sagara, chanced to come across the bones of his dead ancestors. He wanted to perform the shraddha of his ancestors but there was no water available for the ceremony. Agastya having drunk all the waters of the ocean, the country was passing through a severe drought.

Bhagiratha prayed to Brahma, the Creator, to end the drought. Brahma asked him to pray to Vishnu to allow Ganga that was sourcing from his toe, to come down to earth.

Vishnu when prayed to by Bhagiratha agreed, but asked him to request Shiva, the third member of the Hindu trinity of Gods, to allow the torrential rain to fall on his head before it came to the earth as the river was very forceful and if she were allowed to come down unchecked, her fall would split the earth. Shiva agreed to take the gigantic weight of the cascading Ganga on the matted hair piled high on his head. This ensnared and delayed the progress of the river and flowed to the plains bestowing its waters on the parched earth.