Place · river-mouth tirtha · India
Gangā Sāgara / Gangasagar
The island at the Hooghly estuary in the Sundarbans delta where the Ganga meets the Bay of Bengal, completing the river's course from the heavens to the sea. The Kapil Muni temple is the central shrine; the sage's curse is said to have burnt King Sagara's 60,000 sons here, and Bhagiratha's prayer brought the Ganga down to redeem their ashes. The annual Makar Sankranti mela in mid-January draws over a million pilgrims and is among India's largest gatherings after the Kumbh.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Tradition
- Gangā māhātmyas and pilgrimage
- Confidence
- Mixed / layered — The physical place or feature is identifiable; its sacred origin or association belongs to a textual or living tradition.
- Location
- 21.640, 88.080
Connections (1)
- River flowKāshī / Vārānasī / Banāras
From Kashi the Ganga runs nearly a thousand kilometres east and south to meet the Bay of Bengal at Gangasagar on Sagar Island, and pilgrims pair bathing at the two ends to close the river's descent from Himalayan source to ocean. The proverb is that all tirthas are once but Gangasagar is once in a lifetime, because the crossing was dangerous. Kapil Muni's ashram there ties the site to the story of the sixty thousand sons of Sagara for whom the river was brought down at all.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Sagar Island”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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