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Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa 1.43.6

Bāla Kāṇḍa, sarga 43: Story of Sagara: Gaṅgā redeems the sixty thousand. The waters cover the sixty thousand’s ashes and raise them to heaven, Brahmā names Gaṅgā Bhāgīrathī & Tripathagā and Bhagīratha completes the ancestral rites

In the sequence: he declares Gaṅgā Bhagīratha's eldest daughter, hence her name Bhāgīrathī → she is also Tripathagā because she sanctifies the three paths

1.43.6

gaṅgā tripathagā nāma divyā bhāgīrathīti ca
tripatho bhāvayantīti tatas tripathagā smṛtā

Gaṅgā is named the three-pathed and the celestial, and also Bhāgīrathī; and because she hallows the three paths, she is therefore called Tripathagā.

Words: gaṅgā — Gaṅgā; tripathagā — the three-pathed; nāma — by name; divyā — celestial, divine; bhāgīrathīti — Bhāgīrathī (‘of Bhagīratha’), thus; ca — and; tripatho — the three paths; bhāvayantīti — ‘(because) she hallows (them)’, thus; tatas — therefore, thence; tripathagā — Tripathagā (the three-pathed); smṛtā — is called, remembered

Composed by Maharṣi Vālmīki, the ādikavi of the ādikāvya: the first poet of the first poem. Sanskrit: The Vālmīki-Rāmāyaṇa: Critical Edition, Oriental Institute, Baroda, 1960–1975 (gen. eds. G. H. Bhatt, U. P. Shah); IAST from GRETIL (Göttingen). Translation and word glosses: Claude Opus 4.6–4.7; summaries and sequences: ChatGPT Astra (machine-made). Numbering follows the Critical Edition, not the vulgate (e.g. Gita Press, valmikiramayan.net), so sarga and verse numbers can differ from those editions.