{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/rama/ry038.htm","path":"hin/rama/ry038.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rama/ry038.htm","text":"The hours of night now waning fast\n On S'ona's pleasant shore they passed.\n Then, when the dawn began to break,\n To R\u00e1ma thus the hermit spake:\n 'The light of dawn is breaking clear,\n The hour of morning rites is near,\n Rise, R\u00e1ma, rise, dear son, I pray,\n And make thee ready for the way.'\n \n \n Then R\u00e1ma rose, and finished all\n His duties at the hermit's call,\n Prepared with joy the road to take,\n And thus again in question spake:\n 'Here fair and deep the S'ona flows,\n And many an isle its bosom shows:\n What way, O Saint, will lead us o'er\n And land us on the farther shore?\n The saint replied: 'The way I choose\n Is that which pious hermits use.'\n \n \n For many a league they journeyed on\n Till, when the sun of mid-day shone,\n The hermit-haunted flood was seen\n Of J\u00e1hnav\u00ed, \u00a01 the Rivers' Queen.\n Soon as the holy stream they viewed,\n Thronged with a white-winged multitude\n Of sarases \u00a02 and swans, \u00a03 delight\n Possessed them at the lovely sight:\n And then prepared the hermit band\n To halt upon that holy strand.\n They bathed as Scripture bids, and paid\n Oblations due to God and shade.\n To Fire they burnt the offerings meet,\n And sipped the oil, like Amrit sweet.\n Then pure and pleased they sate around\n Saint Vis'v\u00e1mitra on the ground.\n The holy men of lesser note,\n In due degree, sate more remote,\n While Raghu's sons took nearer place\n By virtue of their rank and race.\n Then R\u00e1ma said: 'O Saint, I yearn\n The three-pathed Gang\u00e1's tale to learn.'\n \n \n Thus urged, the sage recounted both\n The birth of Gang\u00e1 and her growth:\n 'The mighty hill with metals stored,\n Him\u00e1laya, is the mountains' lord,\n The father of a lovely pair\n Of daughters fairest of the fair:\n Their mother, offspring of the will\n Of Meru, everlasting hill,\n Men\u00e1, Him\u00e1laya's darling, graced\n With beauty of her dainty waist.\n Gang\u00e1 was elder-born: then came\n The fair one known by Um\u00e1's name.\n Then all the Gods of heaven, in need\n Of Gang\u00e1's help their vows to speed,\n To great Him\u00e1laya came and prayed\n The mountain King to yield the maid.\n He, not regardless of the weal\n Of the three worlds, with holy zeal\n His daughter to the Immortals gave,\n Gang\u00e1 whose waters cleanse and save,\n Who roams at pleasure, fair and free,\n Purging all sinners, to the sea.\n The three-pathed Gang\u00e1 thus obtained,\n The Gods their heavenly homes regained.\n Long time the sister Um\u00e1 passed\n In vows austere and rigid fast,\n And the king gave the devotee\n Immortal Rudra's \u00a04 bride to be,\n Matching with that unequalled Lord\n His Um\u00e1 through the worlds adored.\n So now a glorious station fills\n \n \n \n Each daughter of the King of Hills:\n One honoured as the noblest stream,\n One mid the Goddesses supreme.\n Thus Gang\u00e1, King Him\u00e1laya's child,\n The heavenly river, undefiled,\n Rose bearing with her to the sky\n Her waves that bless and purify.'\n \n \n \n \n \n49:1 One of the names of the Ganges considered as the daughter of Jahnu. See Canto XLIV.\n49:2 The Indian Crane.\n49:3 Or, rather, geese.\n49:4 A name of the God S'iva.","title":"BOOK I: Canto XXXVI.: The Birth of Gang\u00e1.","type":"page"}