Sagar Island is situated near the confluence of the river Ganga and the Bay of
Bengal and can be approached from Kolkata up to Kakdwip/Namkhana by road and thereafter by boat. The island with a 589.5 square kilometres area comprises 46 villages and is famous for ‘Kapil Muni Temple’ near the sea and for ‘Sagar Mela’. The fair is attended by lakhs of pilgrims.
The point where the holy Ganga once mingled its water with sea is regarded as
a highly sacred spot. The legend attributing to its sanctity runs thus: Sagar, King of Ayodhya, who was the 13th ancestor of Rama, was performing the Asvamedha Yagna, or horse-sacrifice, for the 99th time. Indra, King of Heaven, who had himself performed the ceremony a hundred times, became jealous of being displaced by this new rival, stole the horse, and concealed it in a subterranean cell, where the sage Kapila or Kapilmuni was absorbed in meditation, deaf to all events of the external world. Sixty thousand sons of Sagar were sent in search of the horse and they found the horse in his hiding place, and believing the sage to be responsible for the theft, assaulted him. The holy man being thus roused, opened his eyes and cursed his assailants, who were immediately burnt to cinders and sentenced to hell. A grandson of Sagar, in search of his father and uncles, at last came to Kapilmuni, and begged him to resurrect the souls of the dead. The holy man replied that this could be affected only if the waters of Ganga could be brought to the spot to touch the ashes. Now, Ganga was then residing in Heaven, in the custody of Brahma, the Creator, and the grandson of Sagar prayed to him to send the goddess to the Earth. He died, however, without his supplication having been granted. He left no issue; but a son, Bhagirath, was curiously born of his widow, and through his prayers Brahma allowed Ganga to visit the Earth. Bhagirath led the way as far as Hathiagarh in the 24 Parganas, near the sea, and then declared that he could not show the rest of the way, whereupon Ganga, in order to reachi the spot, divided herself into a hundred channels, reached the cell, and by washing the ashes, completed the atonement for the offence of the sons of King Sagar, whose souls were thereupon admitted into heaven. Ganga thus became the sacred stream with a hundred mouths. The people say that the sea took its name, Sagar, from this legend; and the point of confluence of the river and sea at Sagar Island is a celebrated spot of Hindu pilgrimage.
The festival or mela is held at the time of Makar Sankranti when the Sun enters Capricorn, which is identified with the last day of Poush and the first day of Magh (in the middle of January). There are many good tourist lodges and other accommodation easily available and at reasonable rates during the festival.
