Does descent of Ganga or Gangavataran on Earth have roots in Rig Veda?

 

 

Descent of Ganga or Gangavataran has been described in Valmiki Ramayana as follows:

When the eldest son Asamanja is with sinister activity, a torturer of goodmen, and delighter in the undesirable activities towards citizens, his father king Sagara expatriated him from the city.

The ritual horse released by Emperor Sagara is snatched away by Indra in order to cause hindrance to the ritual. The ritual cannot proceed to culmination without the horse. 

Then Sagara orders his sixty thousand sons to search for that horse, asking them to dig earth to trace it, if it is not found on earth. And the princes will dig earth when they have not found the horse on earth, to the grief of beings living in netherworlds.

Sagara's sons dig out all the quarters of earth and when they enter northeast to find out the horse thief, there they find Sage Kapila, i.e., Vishnu in the semblance of a sage. When they wanted to attack that sage Kapila, he renders them to heaps of ashes by his yogic powers.

Asamanja's son Amshuman's search for horse reveals that Kapila rendered his paternal-uncles to ashes. When he wanted to offer water oblation as obsequies to their souls he did not find water. 

Then Garuda, the Eagle-vehicle of Vishnu and maternal uncle of Amshuman advises him to get River Ganga onto earth whereby the souls are cleansed and they go to heaven. Amshuman reports the same to King Sagara, but Sagara not finding any way to get River Ganga onto earth departs to heaven at the end of his time.

Amshuman and his son Dileepa could not make any effort to bring the divine river to earth. But Bhageeratha, the son of Dileepa, staunch at heart tries earnestly to get her onto earth. Brahma agreeing for this descent of Ganga designates lord Shiva to bear the burden of the onrush of Ganga, because the earth cannot sustain it.

Ganga descends to earth by the extraordinary effort of Bhageeratha. Shiva agrees to the alighting of Ganga on His head and from where she is released into a lake called Bindu sarovar, and from there she flows in seven courses. 

On land Bhageeratha ushers her up to netherworld dug by his ancestors, where heaps of ashes of his grandparents are there, and she enters accordingly to inundate those mounds of ashes according salvation to the souls.

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Actually, this story was woven based on the narration (Rig Veda) of Indra’s killing Vṛtra (वृत्र), who had captured and confined the water to the cave, and release that confined water to Manu.

This is spiritual related narration. Manu was the first person to get SPIRITUALLY ELEVATED/SELF-REALISATION. Vṛtra indicates obstacles one will face in the path of spirituality. And, the trapped water indicates the DIVINE BLISS hidden within ONESELF, engrossed in worldly desires.

When worldly desires (obstacles) were conquered, the DIVINE BLISS, hitherto remained hidden, will dawn upon ONESELF.

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This narration is available in Rig Veda 1.32.

Rig Veda 1.32.1 says

इन्द्रस्य नु वीर्याणि प्र वोचं यानि चकार प्रथमानि वज्री । अहन्नहिमन्वपस्ततर्द प्र वक्षणा अभिनत्पर्वतानाम् ॥

indrasya nu vīryāṇi pra vocaṃ yāni cakāra prathamāni vajrī | ahann ahim anv apas tatarda pra vakṣaṇā abhinat parvatānām ||

 

Now I shall proclaim the heroic deeds of Indra, those foremost deeds that the mace-wielder performed: He smashed the serpent. He bored out the waters. He split the bellies of the mountains.

 

Rig Veda 1.32.8

नदं न भिन्नममुया शयानं मनो रुहाणा अति यन्त्यापः । याश्चिद्वृत्रो महिना पर्यतिष्ठत्तासामहिः पत्सुतःशीर्बभूव ॥

nadaṃ na bhinnam amuyā śayānam mano ruhāṇā ati yanty āpaḥ | yāś cid vṛtro mahinā paryatiṣṭhat tāsām ahiḥ patsutaḥśīr babhūva ||

 

Delivering themselves to Manu, the waters go over him like a split reed—lying in that way. Those very ones whom Vr̥tra in his greatness once surrounded—at their feet lay the serpent.

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The above Rig Vedic narration of spiritual struggles and dawning of DIVINE BLISS, narrated in estoretic manner, was modified by the authors of Puranas into story form and presented to the world.

Indra was made Shiva, Manu in Rig Veda had become Bhagiratha and the remaining story can be understood.