The extinction of Sagara’s sons was attended with great changes on the earth’s surface. It is said they dug the earth and made the seas in their search for the sacrificial horse. Hence the sea is called Sâgara. This may refer to the sinking down of Atlantis when a large portion of that great continent became a sea-bed. There was a corresponding upheaval of land and the Himalayan chain reared up its head, as we can easily infer from the first appearance of the Ganges. The first flow of Gangâ indicated a many sided revolution in the appearance of the earth’s surface. A new continent was formed to which India was attached as the prominent link. Spiritual sub-races grew up on the banks of the sacred river who more than atoned for the sins of their fathers. The fore-runner of the race of spirituality was Asamanjas (rising above the ordinary run). He was a Yogin not led away by the material tendencies of the age. His son was Ansumat (having the ray or light in him). Ansumat pacified Kapila. Gangâ is said to be a spiritual stream flowing from the feet of Vishnu. With the advent of this stream, the spiritual rebirth of humanity commenced in right earnest, for the remaining period of the Kalpa. Already the path had been paved by the Karmakânda of the Vedas, which put restrictions on the wanton and reckless performance of Karma or action. The pure magnetism of the holy river helped on the process of regeneration. But this was not in itself sufficient to cope with the forces of materiality. Accordingly we see _Kalmasha_ or sin appearing in the line of Bhagiratha. King Kalmashapâda became a Râkshasa. A Râkshasa is an elemental of destruction. When mind becomes too much identified with the gross body and its desires, its connection with the Higher Self is liable to be cut off by the action of the Râkshasas. These forces of Tamas act in different ways to serve different purposes in the economy of the Universe. When the material downfall of man reaches its furthest limit in the Kalpa, the Râkshasas become Tâmasic forces in man and he is unconscious of his higher nature. That sleep in time becomes a permanent sleep, and the lower man becomes dead to his real Self. This is the real death of man, when the ray sent forth by Íshvara comes back to Him, without any spiritual harvest, and what constituted the personality of man dissolves into the Material Universe. The time had come when a fresh departure was necessary in the methods pursued by the Lilâ Avatâras for the spiritual regeneration of the Universe. They had now to appear amongst men, as ordinary beings, to give direct teachings to their votaries, to infuse as much Satva as possible into humanity and to retard by all means the further extinction of the human race.