"Let Sagar's sons receive from me
Libations that they long to see.
Let Ganga with her holy wave
The ashes of the heroes lave,
That so my kinsmen may ascend
To heavenly bliss that ne'er shall end.
And give, I pray, O god, a son,
Nor let my house be all undone."

To this the god replies--

"As thou prayest, it shall be.
Ganga, whose waves in Swarga (Heaven) flow,
Is daughter of the Lord of Snow.
Win Siva, that his aid be lent
To hold her in her mid descent,
For earth alone will never bear
These torrents hurled from upper air." [*+]

Brahma then re-ascended to the skies; but Bhagirath remained for a whole year--

"With arms upraised, refusing rest,
While with one toe the earth he prest."

Siva, pleased with this devotion, promised to sustain the shock of the descent of the waters on his head; but Ganga was not at all pleased when commanded to descend to earth:

"'He calls me,' in her wrath she cried,
'And all my flood shall sweep
And whirl him in its whelming tide
To hell's profoundest deep.'" [**]

Siva, however, was a match for the wrathful deity. He held her in the coils of his hair until her anger abated, and then she fell into the Vindu lake, from whence proceed the seven sacred streams of India. This lake is not known; and of the seven streams mentioned, two only are familiar to geographers, the Ganges and the Indus. One branch of this stream followed Bhagirath wherever he went. On the way the waters flooded the sacrificial flame of Jahnu, a saint. In his anger he drank up its waters, and Bhagirath's work seemed to be fruitless. But at the intercession of the king and Brahma, the saint allowed the waters to flow from his ears. From this fact one of the many names of Ganga is Jahnavi, or daughter of Jahnu. At length Bhagirath reached the ocean, and descending to the depths where Sagara's sons were lying, Ganga followed until her waters touched the ashes, when--

"Soon as the flood their dust bedewed,
Their spirits gained beatitude,
And all in heavenly bodies dressed
Rose to the skies' eternal rest." [*+]

As a reward for his meritorious work, Brahma' said to him--

"Long as the ocean's flood shall stand
Upon the border of the land,

So long shall Sagar's sons remain,
And, god-like, rank in heaven retain.
Ganga thine eldest child shall be,
Called from thy name Bhagirathi." [**]

As a consequence of faith in this legend, one of the most frequented places of pilgrimage in India is Sagar Island, the place where the river Ganges and ocean meet.