The River Ganges or Gaṅgā - XII

The battle between the Gods (good) and Demons (evil) goes on forever. Once the demon Bāli due to his tapas or ascetic heat, acquired such power that he conquered Indra's heaven and chaos prevailed in the heaven. All the gods were greatly troubled and they implored Lord Viṣṇu to restore law and order. Lord Viṣṇu incarnated himself as a Brahmin dwarf Vāmana and went to Bāli seeking alms, as was the custom of Brahmins. Bāli gave him food, clothes, and many rich presents, but Vāmana insisted that he wanted land. Bāli offered him many great and fertile lands; however, Vāmana declared that he wanted only that land which he could measure by his three steps. Bāli thought that a dwarf could measure only a very small portion of the land with his three small steps, and thus accepted. However, Vāmana tricked Bāli and started to increase his size. So big his size became, that with his first step, he covered the entire earth and with his second step, he covered the entire heaven.

While with the second step Viṣṇu as Vāmana was covering heaven, sweat from Vāmana's feet emanated and so Brahmā washed the feet of Viṣṇu and collected the water in his kamandalu or water vessel. From this water, Gaṅgā was born and thus she is also known as Viṣṇupadī or emanating from the feet of Viṣṇu.

With the third step, Vāmana pressed Bāli on the head and forced him to the nether world.