The Descent of the River

When the Pandavas came in their pilgrimage to the banks of the holy Ganga, where she rushes down out of the mountains, the sage Lomasha told them why that river is the most sacred of all the waters of the world - how she once flowed only in heaven, and was brought down to the earth and on into the underworld by the penance of a single determined king, to wash the ashes of sixty thousand dead and set their souls free.

"It is a tale of pride and disaster and of a devotion that would not give up across four generations," said Lomasha. "It begins with a great king named Sagara, an ancestor of Rama's own line, and a horse sacrifice that went terribly wrong." And the brothers sat by the rushing, sacred water while the sage told the story of the descent of Ganga.