The Purest Hero

written by Jasper | illustrations and layout by Nick Griffin

Author’s Note: Most people hear a single story about India’s repressive politics towards LGBTQ+ issues, causing them to generalize the views of all of South Asian societies and cultures as queerphobic. This view neglects to mention that British colonizers in India, and their enforcement of adherence to Western gender and sexuality norms, are a primary reason for the queerphobia that exists in India today. The following is an interpretative retelling of a story drawn from Hindu mythology found in ancient religious texts. This retelling uses historical information compiled in an essay by Ruth Vanita.

oday, the river Ganges flows through India and Bangladesh. Ganges, symbolized by the goddess Ganga, is deeply sacred to Hindus, who live off of her waters, using them for bathing, sustenance, and rituals. Just as Indian culture changes over time, the Ganges is ever-flowing, yet constantly a symbol of India. The reasons why Ganga came to Earth in the form of the Ganges can be explained by numerous stories.

One such myth begins with a king. King Sagara had two wives, but no children. He deeply desired to sire children, particularly motivated by the need for an heir to the throne. Thus, for years, he practiced a severe penance to the Hindu gods, and prayed for sons.

Finally, one of the gods answered his prayers, and allowed one of King Sagara’s wives to become pregnant. After nine months, she gave birth to a gourd. The king and his wives were deeply perplexed, but proceeded to split open the gourd and preserve each seed in a separate jar. With time, thousands of sons emerged from the jars. Thanks to his prayers and penance, King Sagara bore a total of sixty thousand sons, who all grew up to become brave, strong men.

As is traditional in the Hindu religion, King Sagara and his sons regularly engaged in ritual spiritual practices to please the gods and convince them of their undying devotion. In one such ritual, King Sagara decided to sacrifice one hundred horses to the gods. As the sacrifice proceeded, the gods were pleased with the king and his heirs.

However, one resentful god was unhappy, believing that this sacrifice would increase King Sagara’s power until it was too great for a mortal man. The god snuck to the sacrificial courtyard and stole one of the horses and flew away. He placed the horse at an ashram 1 he saw in the middle of the forest.

Upon discovering this theft, King Sagara was dismayed that sacrifice was disrupted, ordering his sixty-thousand sons to retrieve the horse. The sons searched and searched, and eventually came upon the horse. Unbeknownst to them, a powerful sage resided at the ashram. Deep in meditation, he did not notice the presence of the horse or the sons.

The sons saw the old sage sitting on the ground, and hastily assumed that he was the thief. They immediately defaulted to violence, and as they launched their attack, the sage became aware of their presence and opened his eyes. Due to his sheer power, as soon as his eyes opened, all sixty thousand sons instantly burned to ashes.

Meanwhile, King Sagara grew concerned about the disappearance of all of his sons. He sent his grandson, Anshuman, to investigate. Anshuman followed the path of his uncles, and discovered their ashes at the ashram of the sage.

The sage informed that, instead of calmly asking him for the horse, the men immediately attempted to attack him, leading to their incineration. While the sage allowed Anshuman to bring the horse back, he told him that in order to purify the souls of sixty thousand men, a descendent of Sagara would have to direct the sacred river Ganges from the heavens to the Earth in order to cleanse the ashes. According to the sage, only someone truly pure of heart, as pure as the waters of the Ganges itself, could accomplish this task.

Anshuman brought the horse and this news back to King Sagara, who immediately began to pray, as did his remaining descendents, to the goddess Ganga of the Ganges River. Years and years passed, but no one was successful in convincing Ganga to help. At this point, one of King Sagara’s descendents, Dilip, was the king. Dilip had two wives, but no children to ascend to the throne. King Dilip’s co-wives, Chandra and Mala, lived in close proximity and spent more time with each other than they did with their husband, who spent most of his time involved in political affairs of the kingdom. They felt no such resentment and jealousy towards each other, as many co-wives do – only love. Through their companionship, Chandra and Mala developed a tremendous bond that transcended any definitions of sexual or romantic attraction. They loved each other in the purest manner possible.

King Dilip, meanwhile, was elderly and dying. He feared that he would die before he could sire an heir to the throne. The gods could not allow this crucial lineage to die out. The creator god, Brahma, with the assistance of the love god, Kama, noted Chandra and Mala’s bond of true love, and bestowed a divine blessing upon the two women that would allow them, together, to produce a rightful heir to the throne.

Soon after, King Dilip did indeed die. His wives carried out the mourning rites, but their companionship and love for each other only grew stronger without the presence of their former husband. On a stormy and overcast night, as lightning flashed and rain poured, Chandra and Mala acted on their desires for each other and made love. With the assistance of Kama, the love god, swans sang and peacocks danced and magic crackled in the air. In the act, with Kama’s blessing, the energy of their sapphic love entered Mala’s womb, and Mala became pregnant. The women were initially perplexed on how the pregnancy was even possible, but Kama informed them of the divine blessing and told them that their child would be an incarnation of God due to his supernatural conception.

Nine months later, Mala gave birth to a beautiful son. The god Brahma named him Bhagirath, as he was metaphorically created by two bhagas, or vaginas. Chandra and Mala, although widowed from their husband, lived happily together in the palace and raised Bhagirath with immense love and care. Raised by these two women who bestowed the deep love they had for each other upon their son, Bhagirath was raised without the immediate instinct to resort to violence that centuries of kings taught to their sons. Thus, Bhagirath was kind, gentle, and pure of heart.

Bhagirath was ostracized in school because his classmates believed that he was the product of adultery. Even though Chandra and Mala were widowed, it was considered impure and sinful for widows to engage in any pleasurable activity, particularly if it was sexual in nature. However, his mothers told him the truth, along with his responsibility as a descendent of King Sagara, to finally purify the ashes of his sixty thousand ancestors.

When he became a man, Bhagirath began his penance to the gods. He prayed to all of the gods, specifically performing penance for Ganga, the goddess of the Ganges. He demonstrated his dedication by living in isolation in the forest, eating and drinking just enough to survive, and spending all of his time in deep meditation.

After years of Bhagirath’s penance, Ganga responded to his prayers. She saw that Bhagirath, unlike every other king who had performed the same penance, was pure of heart and intention. She granted his wish, and flowed down to Earth in the form of the river Ganges.

The Ganges’ waters flowed over the ashes of the sixty thousand sons of Sagara and cleansed them. The sacred water absolved the sons of their misdeeds and liberated their souls to rest in peace. The Ganges then became a major river, flowing through India.

Today, Bhagirath, a man conceived by two mothers, is hailed as a hero for dedicatedly bringing Ganges down from the heavens to the Earth. In his honor, one of the streams of the Ganges is named the Bhagirathi.