Introduction
Sagara is a king of Ayodhya and an ancestor of Rama. His story in the Bala Kanda explains how the Ganga came to earth.
This article primarily follows the Valmiki Ramayana. Where a well-known detail comes from a later retelling or tradition, the article identifies it.
Family
- Father: Harishchandra
- Wives: Keshini, Sumati
- Son: Asamanjasa
Two queens
Sagara had two wives, Keshini and Sumati. Keshini had one son, Asamanjasa. Sumati gave birth to a gourd, from which sixty thousand sons were born.
The horse sacrifice
Sagara began a horse sacrifice, and the sacrificial horse was stolen. His sixty thousand sons dug down into the earth to look for it, and found it near the sage Kapila. Thinking that he was the thief, they attacked him, and Kapila burned them to ashes.
Afterwards
The horse was found by Sagara's grandson Amshuman, and the ashes of the sixty thousand sons were later cleansed by the Ganga, which Bhagiratha brought to earth. The ocean is called sagara, "of Sagara", because the sons dug its basin.