Devi Bhagavatam 9.13.7 — Devotion & Grace of the Goddess, Skandha 9, Adhyaya 13, Shloka 7

Ganga Upakhyana: The Origin of Goddess Ganga

Devanagari script

श्रीनारायण उवाच पुरा बभूव गोलोके सा गङ्‌गा द्रवरूपिणी । राधाकृष्णाङ्‌गसम्भूता तदंशा तत्स्वरूपिणी

Transliteration

śrīnārāyaṇa uvāca purā babhūva goloke sā gaṅ‌gā dravarūpiṇī . rādhākṛṣṇāṅ‌gasambhūtā tadaṃśā tatsvarūpiṇī

Translation

သီရိနာရာယဏက ပြောကြားသည်မှာ- ရှေးယခင် ဂေါလောကတွင် ထိုဂင်္ဂါသည် အရည်အသွင်ဖြင့် တည်ရှိခဲ့သည်။ သူမသည် ရာဓာနှင့် ခရစ်ရှနားတို့၏ ခန္ဓာကိုယ်မှ မွေးဖွားလာခြင်းဖြစ်ပြီး ၎င်းတို့၏ အစိတ်အပိုင်းတစ်ခုဖြစ်ကာ ၎င်းတို့၏ သဘောသဘာဝအတိုင်း ရှိနေသူဖြစ်သည်။

Word by Word

• śrī-nārāyaṇaḥ: Sri Narayana
• śrī-nārāyaṇaḥ: kartā
• Type: Noun
• Root: śrīnārāyaṇa
• Form: masculine, nominative, singular

• uvāca: said
• uvāca: kriyā
• Type: Verb
• Root: vac
• Form: lit, parasmaipada, 3rd person, singular

• purā: formerly
• purā: null
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: purā
• Form: null

• babhūva: was/became
• babhūva: kriyā
• Type: Verb
• Root: bhū
• Form: lit, parasmaipada, 3rd person, singular

• goloke: in Goloka
• goloke: adhikaraṇa
• Type: Noun
• Root: goloka
• Form: masculine, locative, singular

• sā: she
• sā: kartā
• Type: Pronoun
• Root: tad
• Form: feminine, nominative, singular

• gaṅgā: Ganga
• gaṅgā: kartā
• Type: Noun
• Root: gaṅgā
• Form: feminine, nominative, singular

• dravarūpiṇī: in the form of liquid
• dravarūpiṇī: viśeṣaṇa
• Type: Adjective
• Root: dravarūpiṇī
• Form: feminine, nominative, singular

• rādhā-kṛṣṇa-aṅga-sambhūtā: born from the limbs of Radha and Krishna
• rādhā-kṛṣṇa-aṅga-sambhūtā: viśeṣaṇa
• Type: Adjective
• Root: rādhākṛṣṇāṅgasambhūtā
• Form: feminine, nominative, singular

• tad-aṃśā: a part of Him/Her
• tad-aṃśā: viśeṣaṇa
• Type: Adjective
• Root: tadaṃśā
• Form: feminine, nominative, singular

• tat-svarūpiṇī: having His/Her nature
• tat-svarūpiṇī: viśeṣaṇa
• Type: Adjective
• Root: tatsvarūpiṇī
• Form: feminine, nominative, singular

Speaker

Narayana

Shakti Theology

Devi Form: Ganga

Mahavidya Connection: null

Shakti Manifestation: Liquid form of Radha-Krishna's essence

Tattva Discussed: Prakriti

Devi Narrative

Demon Antagonist: null

Devi Weapon Used: null

Narrative Source: null

Story Arc Position: exposition

Tantra Dimension

Mantra Referenced: null

Yantra Referenced: null

Kundalini Element: null

Chakra Referenced: null

Tantric Practice Type: null

Bhakti & Stuti

Stuti Type: null

Recitation Occasion: null

Phala Shruti: null

Devotee Offering Stuti: null

Cosmic Feminine

Maya Aspect: null

Creation Role: Emanation from the Supreme Couple

Shakti Philosophy: Vaishnava-Shakta synthesis

Relation To Brahman: Emanation of Radha-Krishna

Vyasa-Janamejaya Dialogue

Narrator: Narayana

Listener: Narada

Dialogue Context: Revealing the esoteric origin of Ganga in Goloka

Narrative Layer: embedded

Ritual Context

Text: Establishes Ganga not just as water, but as the liquefied spiritual essence (Prema/bliss) of Radha and Krishna.

Philosophical Significance

Text: In Shakta-Vaishnava synthesis, the ultimate reality (Radha-Krishna) melts out of pure ecstasy or compassion, and that melted liquid (Drava) is Ganga. Thus, bathing in Ganga is bathing in divine love.

Characters & Entities

• Narayana
• Goloka
• Ganga
• Radha
• Krishna

FAQs

Where did Ganga originally exist according to this verse?

Ganga originally existed in Goloka, the highest spiritual realm.

How was Ganga born in Goloka?

She was born in a liquid form from the combined divine bodies of Radha and Krishna, sharing their essence.