PARV 8 OF 30 · JETH
गंगा दशहरा
Jeth Shukla Dashami (May–June)
"गंगा मइया के जय"
Katha · The story
King Bhagirath did penance for a thousand years so that the Ganga would come down from heaven and release the souls of his sixty thousand ancestors, burnt to ash by the sage Kapil's glance. The Ganga agreed, but her fall would have shattered the earth, so Shiva caught her in his matted hair and let her out in streams. On the tenth day of the bright half of Jeth she touched the earth. Dussehra here means "the destroyer of ten", because bathing in her on this day washes ten kinds of sin.
Malinagar has no Ganga, but it has the Budhi Gandak, which will meet her at Khagaria, and in the village's reckoning that is close enough. The ghat is swept, the steps cleaned of the monsoon silt, and the young men swim across to the Pusa bank and back.
Mahatva · Significance
It honours the river as mother and marks the pre-monsoon cleaning of the ghat. It is the last big river day before the Budhi Gandak rises and becomes dangerous in Sawan.
"हर हर गंगे, गंगा मइया तोर पानी निरमल"
A line everyone at the festival knows
Vidhi · How it is done in Malinagar
Kheera, kharbooja and tarbuj from the river sand, bel sharbat, sattu.
After this day children are told not to go into the river alone until Chhath. The Budhi Gandak in Sawan keeps its own counsel.