Balarāma’s Sarasvatī Tīrtha Yātrā
When the war at Kurukshetra was about to begin, Balarāma could not take either side. He had taught both Bhīma and Duryodhana to fight with the mace (gadā). So he went on a tīrtha-yātrā (a journey to holy places) along the sacred river Sarasvatī. This journey fills most of the Gadā Parva, which is Chapters 35 to 54 of the Śalya Parva. It is one of the longest accounts of a pilgrimage in the Mahābhārata. It names dozens of tīrthas from the western reaches of the Sarasvatī to its source on the Himavat, and at each great place a further account is told.
Why Balarāma set out
As the two great armies gathered at Kurukshetra, Balarāma was in an impossible position. He had trained both Bhīma, the Pāṇḍava champion, and Duryodhana, the Kaurava king, in gadāyuddha (mace fighting). He could not fight against either. He announced that he would go on a tīrtha-yātrā along the Sarasvatī, and he left before the war began. He visited the holy places of the Sarasvatī during all eighteen days of the war.
Vaiśampāyana tells this journey to King Janamejaya, to explain where Balarāma was when he came to watch the gadāyuddha. The account is called the Sārasvata Upākhyāna.
The tīrthas he visited
Western places
Prabhāsa tīrtha. This famous holy place belongs to Soma, the deva of the moon (Candra). Here Balarāma heard how Soma did tapas at Prabhāsa after Daksha cursed him to waste away. Soma had shown favour to Rohiṇī among his twenty-seven wives. Brahmā settled the matter by fixing the cycle of the waxing and waning moon. (Chapter 35)
Vinaśana. This is the place where the Sarasvatī goes underground. Balarāma saw the wonder of the river’s hidden course here. (Chapter 36)
Subhūmika. The place is described as a playground (krīḍāsthāna) of the apsarases. (Chapter 36)
Gandharva tīrtha. It is linked with Viśvāvasu and the hosts of gandharvas. (Chapter 36)
Gargasthota. This is the āśrama of Garga Ṛshi. (Chapter 36)
Śaṅkha tīrtha. An ancient tīrtha on the Sarasvatī. (Chapter 36)
Dvaitavana. A holy forest on the Sarasvatī. (Chapter 38)
Nāgadhanu. A tīrtha linked with Vāsuki, the king of the nāgas. (Chapter 38)
Sapta-Sārasvata (Chapters 36–37)
At the Sapta-Sārasvata tīrtha seven streams of the Sarasvatī meet. The seven are Suprabhā, Viśālā, Manoramā, Sarasvatī (the main stream), Oghavatī, Sureṇu and Vimalodakā. Balarāma bathed at this famous tīrtha.
Trita-kūpa (Chapter 37)
At the tīrtha called Camaso’dbheda, also Trita-kūpa, Balarāma heard the account of three ṛshi brothers, Trita, Ekata and Dvita. The three were travelling when Trita, the youngest, fell into a well. From inside the well Trita performed a yajña with substitutes: plants stood in for Soma, thorns for the sacred grass, and water for clarified butter. He pleased the devas. The well became holy. The whole Trita-kūpa Upākhyāna was told here.
Maṅkaṇaka’s āśrama (Chapters 39–40)
Balarāma visited the āśrama of Maṅkaṇaka, the son born of Vāyu through a wondrous conception. He heard how Maṅkaṇaka once cut his hand and saw vegetable sap (śāka rasa) flow out instead of blood. This made him dance with joy, and his dancing made the whole world shake. Śiva came in the form of a brāhmaṇa, pressed his own thumb, and showed that ash (bhasma) flowed from his wound. At the sight of Bhagavān Śiva, Maṅkaṇaka’s wild joy calmed, and he bowed to him. The world became still. (Chapter 40)
Pṛthodaka (Chapter 41)
At Pṛthodaka, linked with the āśrama of Rushaṅku, Balarāma heard the accounts of kings and ṛshis who reached the state of a brāhmaṇa: Sindhudvīpa, Devāpi and Viśvāmitra. The ṛshi Rushaṅku himself reached the paramapada (the highest state) at this tīrtha. Ārjisheṇa is also linked with this place.
Kapālamocana, also Auśanasa (Chapter 42)
At the Auśanasa tīrtha, also called Kapālamocana (“freeing from the skull”), Balarāma heard about Mahodara muni. A skull was stuck in his leg and could not be taken out. The holy waters here freed him from it. The tīrtha is also linked with the tradition that Paraśurāma washed away the pāpa of his killings of warriors here.
Yāyāta tīrtha and Vasishṭhāpavāha (Chapter 43)
Yāyāta tīrtha. Here Yayāti, son of Nahusha, performed his great yajña. Indra and Namuci (an asura) are linked with this place.
Vasishṭhāpavāha. At this place the Sarasvatī is said to have flowed with blood (rakta) during the terrible quarrel between Vasishṭha and Viśvāmitra. The account of the quarrel of Vasishṭha and Viśvāmitra was told here. The place is called Vasishṭhāpavāha, “where Vasishṭha was swept away by the Sarasvatī”.
Baka-Dālbya’s āśrama (Chapter 44)
At the tīrtha called Avākīrṇa, which is the āśrama of Baka-Dālbya, Balarāma heard the Baka-Dālbya Upākhyāna. It tells of the brāhmaṇa Baka-Dālbya, who taught the Pañcāla king Dhṛtarāshṭra the rules of a king’s dharma by a striking lesson shown with a calf. This was not the Kaurava king Dhṛtarāshṭra but an earlier king of the same name.
Sthāṇu-tīrtha and the abhisheka of Kārttikeya (Chapter 45)
At Sthāṇu-tīrtha, also called Taijasamanda, Balarāma heard the account of the abhisheka (the anointing) of Kārttikeya as commander of the armies of the devas. The six Kṛttikā mothers, Indra, Agni and all the devas took part in his crowning here. Kārttikeya killed the great asura Tāraka, who had been a terror to the worlds. The Varuṇābhisheka tīrtha is also nearby.
Agni-tīrtha and the Śamī tree (Chapter 46)
At Agni-tīrtha Balarāma heard how Agni, the deva of fire, hid inside the Śamī tree (Prosopis cineraria) after the ṛshi Bhṛgu cursed him. The tīrtha marks the place where Agni hid and where he came out again.
Brahma-Yoni and Kaubera tīrtha (Chapter 47)
Brahma-Yoni tīrtha. A tīrtha of great holiness, linked with Brahmā.
Kaubera tīrtha. This is where Kubera, master of wealth, did hard tapas. Nalakūbara, the son of Kubera, is also linked with this tīrtha.
Badara-pācana tīrtha and Śrutāvatī (Chapter 48)
At Badara-pācana tīrtha Balarāma heard the account of Śrutāvatī. She was a young woman born to Bharadvāja. Her birth was wondrous: Bharadvāja’s seed fell when he saw the apsarā Ghṛtācī, and the river Sarasvatī carried the child. Śrutāvatī did extraordinary tapas. She cooked jujube berries (badara, also called regu) using her own legs as firewood, and did not flinch. Indra, pleased, appeared to her and gave her a vara (a boon): she would be his wife in the next world. She left her body and went up to Indra’s world. The tīrtha is named for this act of cooking (pācana) jujubes (badara).
Inside this account the account of Arundhatī was told. Śiva came to Arundhatī in the form of a brāhmaṇa and asked her for food during a famine that lasted twelve years. She cooked the same jujubes for all twelve years without complaint. She did not notice time passing, because Śiva was telling her divine accounts. Then Bhagavān Śiva showed himself and praised her tapas before the assembled Saptarshis.
Āditya tīrtha, Indra tīrtha and Rāma tīrtha (Chapter 49)
- Indra-tīrtha. Here Indra performed his hundred yajñas, and so he gained the name Śatakratu. Balarāma bathed here and gave great gifts (dāna).
- Rāma-tīrtha. Here Paraśurāma did tapas after he had wiped out the kshatriya class. He performed the vājapeya and aśvamedha yajñas and gave the earth to Kaśyapa as the fee (dakshiṇā). This tīrtha is on the Sarasvatī.
- Āditya-tīrtha. Here Sūrya, also called Bhāskara, the deva of the sun, did tapas and set his place as chief among the lights of the sky. At this tīrtha Balarāma also heard that Vyāsa (Kṛshṇa Dvaipāyana), Śuka and Kṛshṇa himself were present. Bhagavān Vishṇu had bathed here to remove the pāpa he took on in the battle with Madhu and Kaiṭabha.
Asita-Devala and Jaigīshavya (Chapter 50)
Near Āditya-tīrtha Balarāma heard the long account of Asita-Devala, the householder ṛshi, and Jaigīshavya, the great yogin. Jaigīshavya made his home in Devala’s āśrama and amazed him by appearing in several places at once: in the āśrama, in the ocean and in various lokas. Devala tested Jaigīshavya’s powers by going up through all the worlds. He went from the earthly realms through pitṛloka, devaloka and chandraloka to the edges of Brahmaloka, and he found Jaigīshavya in every one of them. In the end Devala received teaching on mokshadharma from Jaigīshavya. Nārada confirmed that Jaigīshavya had no equal.
Sārasvata tīrtha: Dadhīca and Sārasvata (Chapter 51)
At the Sārasvata tīrtha Balarāma heard how the ṛshi Sārasvata came to be born. The ṛshi Dadhīca (also written Dadhīci) was doing tapas on the bank of the Sarasvatī. Indra sent the beautiful apsarā Ālambushā to disturb him. At the sight of her, Dadhīca’s seed was released against his will. He gathered it in a leaf-cup. The river Sarasvatī, out of devotion to the ṛshi, took this seed into her womb and bore a son, named Sārasvata, “son of Sarasvatī”. Dadhīca blessed the Sarasvatī with a vara: her waters would make the pitṛs and the devas pure.
Later there was a drought of twelve years. All the ṛshis scattered to look for food and lost their knowledge of the Veda. But Sārasvata lived on fish given to him by his mother Sarasvatī, and he kept up his recitation of the Veda without a break. When the drought ended, the sixty thousand scattered ṛshis came to Sārasvata and begged him to teach them the Vedas again. He was only a child, but Sārasvata held to the right way between teacher and pupil. The ṛshis agreed, and through him the Vedic tradition was restored.
In an earlier age Dadhīca had given up his body. Indra used his bones to make the vajra and other divine weapons, which destroyed ninety-nine thousand daitya and dānava warriors.
Vṛddha-kanyā tīrtha (Chapter 52)
At Vṛddha-kanyā tīrtha Balarāma heard the account of the Vṛddha-kanyā (“old maiden”). The ṛshi Kuṇirgarga made a daughter by tapas alone. After he went away to the higher worlds, his daughter lived on in his āśrama, doing tapas and honouring the devas and pitṛs. She looked for a husband and found none equal to her, and she grew old in her tapas. Nārada came and told her that without marriage she could not reach the higher worlds. She then declared in an assembly of ṛshis that she would give half her tapas to anyone who would marry her. Śṛṅgavanta, son of Gālava, agreed to marry her for a single night. She spent that night in divine beauty, and at dawn she let him go. Then she left her body and rose to the higher worlds. The tīrtha got its name from this account.
Samantapañcaka, also Kurukshetra (Chapter 53)
Balarāma visited Samantapañcaka, which is Kurukshetra. The ṛshis gathered there told him how it began. The great king Kuru, ancestor of both the Kauravas and the Pāṇḍavas, ploughed this field without rest. Indra came and asked him why. Kuru said he wished that those who died here would go to the highest worlds. Indra laughed and left, but he came back again and again and found Kuru still ploughing. At last Indra was moved by Kuru’s steadiness and, advised by the devas, gave the vara: those who die at Samantapañcaka, whether in battle, by fasting, or in any other way, would go to the higher worlds. Brahmā, Vishṇu and Maheśvara all confirmed the vara. This place is called the uttaravedi of Prajāpati, and it is the most holy kshetra in all of Bhāratavarsha. (Chapter 53)
Plaksha-Prasravaṇa, the source of the Sarasvatī (Chapter 54)
Balarāma climbed to Plaksha-Prasravaṇa. This is the Plaksha tree at whose foot the Sarasvatī springs, on the slopes of the Himavat. It is the starting point of the whole holy river. From here the Sarasvatī flows west through all the tīrthas he had visited. At this place Balarāma composed a hymn (stotra) to the Sarasvatī.
He then went back to the Kārapavana tīrtha, on the Yamunā and linked with Mitra and Varuṇa, and from there to the āśrama of Mitra and Varuṇa. There he met Nārada, who came with his Kacchapī vīṇā and described the whole course of the Kurukshetra war. When Balarāma learned that the gadāyuddha was near, he at once mounted his chariot and returned to Kurukshetra. (Chapter 54)
Balarāma as witness
Balarāma reached Samantapañcaka just as the two champions, Bhīma and Duryodhana, were about to begin their mace fight. He was the teacher of both, and his presence gave the fight great weight. When Bhīma struck the blow against dharma that ended the gadāyuddha, Balarāma was furious and left. His parting words cleared Duryodhana and blamed Bhīma’s way of fighting. These words close the account of the war.
Sources
- Mahābhārata, Śalya Parva, Chapters 35–54 (the Gadā Parva; the Sārasvata Upākhyāna)