Ansuman searched in all the directions and traveled far and wide.  He asked all the kings and all the people that he met during his journey as to the whereabouts of the horse, but nobody could give him even the slightest hint.  After searching for the horse in vain, Ansuman returned to Ayodhya.  Upon the failure of Ansuman, now King Sagara, according to the hierarchical line of princes, sent his sixty thousand sons of his second queen Sumati, to head the search party and look for the lost horse.  They set out with the blessings of their parents, priests, and elders and traveled in distant and remote regions, crossing many mountains and oceans.  But nowhere could they find any trace of their lost horse.

Thereafter, they jointly consulted, and concluded that the entire world was searched and yet the horse was not found.  Either the horse was killed by some wild animal or died a natural death.  However, even if such an unfortunate event was to happen, then they should have at least found the corpse of the horse.  Even if some traveler had chanced upon the corpse and buried it in the hope of looting the ornaments, then at least the ornaments would have surely have found their way to the markets, as the traveler was bound to sell them.  Neither did they find the corpse of the horse nor the ornaments.  Therefore, they concluded that the horse was alive but was not in this world.  Hence, it was evident that the horse was in any of the other two worlds, namely, heaven or hell.  The possibility of the horse being in heaven was ruled out, as the gods would gain nothing by stealing the horse, and the horse on its own could not go to heaven, so it was evident that the horse was not in heaven.  Therefore, they concluded that the horse was in hell.  The sixty thousand sons of Sagara decided to dig the earth and enter the nether world and search for the horse.  In Patala, the nether world, they searched in vain and they lost all hope for the recovery of the horse.  Ultimately, they came to the hermitage of Sage Kapila.

Now Sage Kapila was undergoing severe tapas and yogic austerities and so to remain undisturbed he had chosen Patala to make his hermitage.  The sacrificial horse, fully decorated with the ornaments and the royal pennant, was in one corner of the hermitage as left by Indra.  Kapila was in deep meditation and when the sixty thousand sons of Sagara saw the horse, their happiness knew no bounds.  They rejoiced and promptly went to the horse and took hold of its reins.  They thought sage Kapila had stolen the horse and so they surrounded him with plans of attacking him.  The noise disturbed Kapila and he was furious that his meditation was broken.  The angry sage opened his eyes and looked upon the sixty thousand sons of Sagara with his burning and angry gaze.  Such was the extreme tapas of the sage that his wrathful yogic gaze reduced the sixty thousand sons of Sagara to ashes within seconds.  Thereafter, Kapila closed his eyes and resumed his meditation.

Terracotta Ganga, Ahichchhatra,
Up Gupta, 5th  c. CE,
National Museum Delhi
 

In Ayodhya, King Sagara was very troubled.  The disappearance of the sacrificial horse was in itself a very bad omen and there was no news of his sixty thousand sons, who had also simply vanished.  The heavenly wanderer, Narada, then informed King Sagara of the fate of his sons.  Deeply disturbed, the troubled king sent for his grandson Ansuman, and asked him to go and seek Kapila"s forgiveness and bring back his uncles to life.  Ansuman, finally after a long search, arrived at the place where the earth was dug up and a tunnel was created to enter the nether world.  Ansuman went down the tunnel and after much trouble arrived at Kapila"s hermitage.  There he saw sage Kapila in deep meditation, the sacrificial horse peacefully standing close by, and ashes strewn about all over the place. 

Ansuman could detect human shapes in those ashes and figured out that the ashes were of his uncles, who must have been burned down by sage Kapila.

Ansuman respectfully sat at the feet of the great sage and after some time, sage Kapila opened his eyes.  Ansuman bowed before the sage and implored, pleaded and begged the great sage to forgive his sixty thousand uncles and revive them back to life.  Sage Kapila was pleased with Ansuman"s respectful conduct and conversation, and told Ansuman that if Ganga came from the heavens to the netherworld and flowed over the ashes, then his uncles would be revived.  Ansuman with great respect, asked how could Ganga be brought down to earth and the wise sage replied that he would have to please Brahma with penances so that Brahma may give permission to Ganga to come to the earth.  With a heavy heart, yet with some hope, Ansuman bowed before Kapila, took the sacrificial horse and asked for his leave from the great sage.

Ansuman was disheartened and he went back to Ayodhya and narrated the entire story to his grandfather King Sagara, who was grief-stricken.  However, King Sagara decided to do penance to please Brahma and bring Ganga to earth.  His life was spent and he failed in his mission.  Thereafter, Ansuman decided to bring Ganga from the heavens.  His whole life was spent yet he could not please Brahma to achieve this impossible task.  He died an unhappy man and instructed his son Dilip to pursue his task of doing penances and pleasing Brahma so that Ganga can be brought down from Swarga Loka to Patal Loka and flow over the ashes of his ancestors, thereby releasing their souls to heaven.  King Dilip also tried numerous austerities but was unsuccessful and he too, like his father, died a most unhappy man.  He instructed his son Bhagiratha to achieve this impossible task.  Bhagiratha was a man of great will and courage, but the task was also not a simple one.  On the one hand, the mounds of ashes of his ancestors were waiting for a capable descendent to release their souls and on the other hand bringing Ganga from heaven to earth and then taking her to the nether regions was in itself no mean feat!

However, his vow given to his father King Dilip urged him on, and with profound determination, King Bhagiratha meditated on Lord Brahma in the Himalayas for several years.  Brahma was pleased with his devotion, and told him that Ganga"s descent would result in such a great force, that the entire world would be washed and crushed away in a torrential flood. 

Bhagiratha’s Penace

Brahma asked the ascetic Bhagiratha to pray to Lord Siva as only Siva would be able to check her descent.  Seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, and years passed in solitary meditation and in the performance of strict austerities by King Bhagiratha. With unflinching determination and astounding devotion, Bhagiratha performed his meditation and finally Lord Siva was pleased and appeared before him The joy of Bhagiratha knew no bounds, and he recounted the whole sad plight of his ancestors to Siva.  Upon hearing this tragic account from Bhagiratha, Lord Siva agreed that he would take the impact of Ganga as she descended from the heaven.  Bhagiratha was overjoyed and he meditated on goddess Ganga and requested her to flow down to earth, as Lord Siva was willing to bear the impact of her descent.  Thereafter, Ganga came down from the heavens, and in her youthful playfulness thought that Mahadeva would be swept off with her mighty fall, but Siva covered the whole sky with his matted locks and took every drop of Ganga in his locks.  Ganga went about traversing in the mighty locks of Siva, and thus the her force slowly subsided.  After Ganga was completely captured, Siva tied his matted hairs, and Ganga could not come out of it

Siva then released a small portion of Ganga and told her to follow Bhagiratha.  Ganga followed and wherever Bhagiratha went people came in huge numbers to take a holy dip in the sacred waters of the Ganga.  On the way, the ashrama or hermitage of sage Jhanu came, and Bhagiratha accidentally came a bit too near it.  Ganga followed and soon the hermitage was flooded.  Sage Jhanu was furious and to teach Ganga a lesson, he swallowed her.  Now, Bhagiratha requested sage Jhanu, that it was his mistake that he came too near his ashrama, and requested to release Ganga for the benefit of his ancestors.  Sage Jhanu grew calm and taking pity on Bhagiratha released Ganga through his ear.  Since Ganga came out of sage Jhanu"s body, thus she came to be known as Jhanavi or the daughter of Jhanu.

Thereafter, Bhagiratha led Ganga, towards the sea, and since he did not know where the ashes lay, he told Ganga to follow her own course.  Ganga divided herself into hundred streams in the hope that one of the stream would wash the ashes.  One stream did wash the ashes and this place is nowadays known as Ganga Sagar or Sagar Island.  A bath in Ganga Sagar on the day of Makar Sankranti is considered very auspicious.  The hundred streams formed the hundred mouths of the present day Ganges Delta.  Thus, Ganga flowed over the ashes and liberated the souls of Bhagiratha"s sixty thousand ancestors

Ganga as in the Mahabharata

The mention of the river goddess Ganga occurs throughout the eighteen parvas or sections of the Mahabharata in one form or another.  But it comes clearly for the very first time in the very first section, i.e. in the Adi Parva, where Ganga in her human form, meets King Santanu of the Bharata and subsequently the Kuru dynasty, who were the rulers of Hastinapura.

Now it so happened that in the Iksvaku race, was born a great king Mahabhisa.  He was always truthful in speech, strong, and ruled the earth justly.  He performed numerous religious sacrifices and by performing one hundred Rajasuya and one thousand Asvamedha sacrifices, he pleased Indra, and thus

 attained heaven.  It so happened that one day in heaven all the celestials, royal sages, and other heavenly beings were worshipping Brahma.  Mahabhisa was also present in this celestial gathering.  Ganga also came to pay her respects dressed in a white garment shining as the moonbeams.  Mahabhisa was enraptured by her beauty and was gazing at her.  Feeling the gaze of Mahabhisa, Ganga looked at him and both their eyes locked together.  By a sudden gust of the wind, her garment was displaced and all the celestial beings lowered their heads so as not to embarrass Ganga, but Mahabhisa went on gazing at her exposed figure.  This enraged Brahma and he cursed Mahabhisa to be born on earth and suffer the agonies of human beings.  He also cursed Ganga to be born on earth and to give Mahabhisa such mental sufferings that he would almost die with grief and would feel a great anger, upon which Mahabhisa"s curse would end.  In course of time, Mahabhisa was born as Santanu and Ganga marries him to fulfill Brahma"s curse.

Santanu was born as the son of King Pratipa. On the banks of the river Ganges, a great King Pratipa of the Bharata line was practicing strict austerities in order to have an offspring. 

                                                                                                                             Vyasa dictated the epic to Ganesh

The heavenly maiden Ganga saw Pratipa and approached him.  Ganga, the celestial maiden, woman of ravishing beauty and generously endowed with all the feminine charms went up to the royal sage and sat on his right thigh, which in manliness resembled like a Sala tree. As the maiden of exquisite beauty sat on his thigh, King Pratipa asked that what was her desire and Ganga answered that she desired him as her husband.  The foremost of the Kurus, King Pratipa replied that to refuse a woman who came of her own accord is never taught by the wise, yet out of lust he has never gone after women or others" wives and this was his vow.  Ganga told him that she was neither ugly nor inauspicious, she was gifted with rare beauty and being a celestial maiden, she was worthy of being enjoyed and so she should become her queen.  King Pratipa was greatly moved by her intelligent argument, and replied that indeed, she was of heavenly beauty, but under no circumstances could he break his vow.  Moreover, he could not take her as an object of desire, as she had embraced him by sitting on his right thigh, which is the place for daughters and daughters-in-law.  The left thigh is meant for the wife, on which Ganga did not sit.  Therefore, King Pratipa accepted Ganga as his daughter-in-law and accepted her for his yet unborn son.  Hearing this, Ganga replied, that so be it, and promised to become the wife of his son.  She would greatly increase the virtues of the noble Bharata race and his son would become a great and powerful ruler.  Ganga also laid down a condition, that his son should neither question any of her acts nor should speak any unkind word and if he does so, then she will leave him forever.  Having said this the heavenly damsel, Ganga, disappeared from the royal sage Pratipa"s sight.

Thereafter, King Pratipa and his queen underwent extreme purificatory rites in order to give birth to a great and a noble soul.  In time, a son was born and he was named Santanu that meant "son of the peaceful", because King Pratipa had attained peace by perfect control over his passions and desires.  As per the curse of Brahma, Mahabhisa was born as Santanu.  He grew up as the best of the Kurus and realizing that one"s deed alone gives indestructible bliss, he always practiced virtue with utmost devotion.  When Santanu perfected all the arts befitting a king and all the virtues befitting a royal sage, King Pratipa and his queen decided to retire to the forest and lead their vanaprastha or forest dweller lives.