History of Gangotri

The pictorial beauty of Gangotri’s history calls it back to times, when Goddess Ganga (daughter of heaven) descended herself in the form of a river to pardon the sins of king Bhagirath’s predecessors followed by their penance of 5500 years. In order to control the flow of holy river Ganga and minimize its impact, Lord Shiva took her in his locks. Along with being called Ganga, she was also known as Bhagirathi as it came down for the purpose of Bhagirath’s penance.

As per the legends speaks, King Sagar, after assassinating the demons on earth, performed an Aswamedh Yagna to declare his supremacy. The King's 60,000 sons born of Queen Sumati and one son Asamanjas of Queen Kesani were to accompany the horse. At this, Lord Indra feared the defeat of his supremacy and stole the horse. Then, he tied it to the ashram of ancient “rishi” Kapil, who was had been into deep meditation. While searching for the horse, those 60,000 sons stormed the ashram of Kapil. Just before the attack on him, the sage Kapil opened his eyes and abridged all the 60,000 sons of King Sagar except Asamanjas to ashes.

King Sagar's grandson Anshuman was triumphant in recovering the horse from Kapil and was told that those 60,000 burnt will achieve heavenly adobe, if Ganga is brought down from heaven and their ashes will be sleaned by its water. Anshuman failed in bringing Ganga to earth and so did his son Dilip also; but his grandson Bhagirath succeeded in bringing Goddess Ganga to earth from its heavenly abode.

The intense meditation made Ganga to descend from heaven. After Lord Shiva collected her in his hairs, he released it into seven streams on getting happy with the King Bhagirath. And finally, the ashes of those 60,000 sons were touched by river Ganga and they got their peaceful abode in heaven.