Narmadā Māhātmya in the Matsya Purāṇa

The Narmadā is one of the great sacred rivers. In Chapters 185 to 193 of the Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, the ṛshi Mārkaṇḍeya tells her māhātmya (greatness) to King Yudhishṭhira. He speaks of how she began, how strongly she purifies, the holy tīrthas at her source at Amarakaṇṭaka, and how Jvāleśvara came to be after Bhagavān Śiva burned the Tripura of Bāṇāsura. He tells of the meeting of the Kauberī and the Narmadā, where Kubera won his rule. He then names many tīrthas on both banks, with the reward of each. Among them are the Śukla tīrtha, the Bhṛgu tīrtha, the Daśāśvamedha tīrtha, and the place where the Narmadā meets the sea, called the Jāmadagnya tīrtha.

The Narmadā’s power to purify (Chapter 185)

Mārkaṇḍeya begins the Narmadā Māhātmya with the basic teaching about the power of the river to purify:

“Sarasvatī purifies by three days of contact; Yamunā by seven days; Gaṅgā by a single bath; but the Narmadā purifies through darśana alone. Merely beholding her removes all gathered pāpa.”

So the Narmadā purifies by sight alone, with no bath, no offering and no ritual act. This makes her the easiest to reach of the great sacred rivers. People who cannot bathe, because of illness, distance or any other reason, can still receive her grace by seeing her waters. Touching her waters dissolves even brahmahatyā (the killing of a brāhmaṇa), the gravest of all pāpa.

The Narmadā begins at the mountain Amarakaṇṭaka. From there she flows west for one hundred yojanas until she reaches the western ocean.

Amarakaṇṭaka, the holy source (Chapter 185)

Within two krośas (a measure of distance) of Amarakaṇṭaka, the source of the Narmadā, there are sixty crore and sixty thousand tīrthas. So much holy power gathers at the mountain where the river is born.

The main tīrthas at the source include:

• Rudra-koṭī: a crore of Rudra-liṅgas have been set up here over the ages by the tapas of ṛshis.
• Mahendra-snāna: the bathing place of Indra himself.
• Other Śaiva tīrthas set up by ancient ṛshis.

A pilgrimage to Amarakaṇṭaka, with a bath at the source at holy times such as an eclipse (grahaṇa), gives the same reward as ten aśvamedha yajñas. At a solar eclipse all the tīrthas and devas come together at Amarakaṇṭaka. At that moment it is the most powerful of all places of pilgrimage.

The Tripura of Bāṇāsura and Jvāleśvara (Chapters 186–187)

Nārada visits Bāṇa’s Tripura (Chapter 186)

Bāṇāsura was the powerful son of Bali Mahārāja. He had built a flying fortress-city, the Tripura, on the banks of the Narmadā. It was held up by his devotion to Bhagavān Śiva and his great power of tapas. The city had three levels and moved through the sky. Its people shone with the tejas of their shared devotion.

Nārada came to Bāṇa’s Tripura. He gave quiet teaching to the women of the city. This turned their faith and their attention aside and made a dosha (flaw) in the protecting power of the city. The strength of the city was the shared devotion of its people. When that devotion was turned aside, the city could be struck.

Bāṇāsura saw what was happening. His city’s spiritual armour was weakening, and he understood what this moment meant. He composed a stotra to Bhagavān Śiva in the Toṭaka metre:

O Śiva, Śaṃkara, source of all that is auspicious, I bow to you!
O Bhava, Maheśvara, most fearsome in all creation, I bow to you!
O destroyer of Manmatha, O Tripurāntaka, O crusher of Andhaka, I bow to you!
O Śiva, with the crescent moon on your head, I am fallen and in pain. Grant that the course of my pāpa be turned. Let me remember you always.

He admitted that he was bound by pride (mada) and by love of the wealth and power of the Tripura. He asked Bhagavān Śiva to cut the bonds of moha (delusion) and raise him up.

Śiva burns the Tripura and Jvāleśvara is set up (Chapter 187)

Bhagavān Śiva made ready the cosmic ratha (chariot). At the moment when all three parts of the Tripura came together into one target, he let go his single arrow. The city was burned in the cosmic fire.

Bāṇāsura’s pride was gone, through his own stotra and through seeing his city destroyed. He gave himself up fully and received the grace of Bhagavān Śiva:

“Vatsa, do not fear. You shall be akshaya (without end), avyaya (without change) and nirbhaya (without fear). Stay here with your family.”

The burning city fell on the shore of the Narmadā. Bhagavān Śiva held the flames still (stambhita) at that very spot on the bank. The place where the cosmic fire was stopped became the tīrtha of Jvāleśvara, “the lord of the stopped flame.” The Jvāleśvara liṅga, set up by Bhagavān Śiva at that spot, became one of the best-known tīrthas on the whole Narmadā.

The Padma Purāṇa, in its Svarga Khaṇḍa, also sets up Jvāleśvara at Amarakaṇṭaka on the Narmadā and names Nārada’s visit as the cause of the fall of the city.

The Kauberī-Narmadā saṃgama (Chapter 188)

The river Kauberī, the river of Kubera’s realm, meets the Narmadā at one place. Here Kubera, before he became lord of the yakshas, did hard tapas for one hundred years. Bhagavān Śiva as Maheśvara appeared and gave him the vara he asked for: “Let me be the first among all beings and the nāyaka (leader) of the yakshas.” Bhagavān Śiva granted it, and Kubera became Yakshādhipati, ruler of the whole realm of the yakshas.

A bath at this saṃgama (meeting of rivers) gives:

• the reward of an aśvamedha yajña
• a home in Rudra-loka

The Padma Mahā Purāṇa (Svarga Khaṇḍa, Chapter 16) tells the same episode.

Tīrthas on the southern bank (Chapters 189–190)

Mārkaṇḍeya names the tīrthas on the southern bank of the Narmadā, each with its own reward and its own account. Among the first are:

• Śūlabheda tīrtha: Paraśurāma set up a Śivaliṅga here, and a bath here removes gathered pāpa.
• Māhishmatī: the ancient city-tīrtha on the southern bank, linked with the history of the Haihayas.
• Many other Śaiva and Vaishṇava tīrthas, each with its named presiding deva and the history of the tapas of ṛshis.

The Śukla tīrtha (Chapter 191)

The Śukla tīrtha on the Narmadā is one of the chief tīrthas of the river. Mārkaṇḍeya, who tells the whole māhātmya, speaks of his own question at this tīrtha. He had gone to Bhagavān Śiva on the Himāvat with a question about the power of the Narmadā, and the answer of Bhagavān Śiva confirmed the great puṇya of this tīrtha.

A bath at the Śukla tīrtha gives the reward of a hundred aśvamedha yajñas. The Nārada Mahā Purāṇa (Uttarārdha, Chapter 77) also lists the Śukla tīrtha by name.

The Bhṛgu tīrtha and Bhṛgu’s stotra (Chapter 192)

At the Bhṛgu tīrtha on the Narmadā, the great ṛshi Bhṛgu did hard tapas. During this tapas Dharma came in the form of a great vṛshabha (bull) and knocked Bhṛgu down from his seat of tapas.

Bhṛgu did not answer with a śāpa. He composed a stotra to Bhagavān Śiva. The Matsya Purāṇa records this stotra.

The Bhṛgu-kshetra is counted among the most purifying places on the whole Narmadā. A bath here, especially in the spot linked with Bhṛgu’s tapas, gives the reward of a crore of tīrthas. The Nārada Mahā Purāṇa also names the Bhṛgu-kshetra as a place equal to a crore of tīrthas.

The Daśāśvamedha tīrtha and the meeting of the Narmadā with the sea (Chapter 193)

The Daśāśvamedha tīrtha on the Narmadā is named for the ten aśvamedha yajñas that ancient kings performed there. It is one of the most meritorious bathing places on the river.

The meeting of the Narmadā with the western ocean is called the Jāmadagnya tīrtha, the tīrtha of Paraśurāma (Jāmadagnya). Here Paraśurāma performed his last rite of peace and purification after his wars. The Jāmadagnya tīrtha marks the ocean end of the Narmadā’s sacred way of one hundred yojanas. It completes the pilgrimage from Amarakaṇṭaka to the sea.

Phalaśruti (the reward of hearing): the chapter ends with the phalaśruti of the whole Narmadā Māhātmya. One who bathes at any tīrtha on the Narmadā reaches the uttama-gati (highest goal). One who performs śrāddha here frees seven generations of ancestors. One who only hears this Māhātmya each day is freed from all pāpa.

The Narmadā and the other great rivers

The Kūrma Purāṇa says the Narmadā is Rudra himself. She is not a river that Rudra has blessed. She is born from the body of Rudra, and so she is a direct form of Parameśvara. The Matsya Purāṇa tells of tīrthas with their own histories, named one by one along her whole course.

Sources

• Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 185–193: the Narmadā Māhātmya told by Mārkaṇḍeya to Yudhishṭhira
• Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 185: the power of the Narmadā and Amarakaṇṭaka
• Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 186–187: Bāṇāsura’s Tripura and Jvāleśvara
• Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 188: the Kauberī-Narmadā saṃgama
• Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 189–190: tīrthas on the southern bank
• Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 191: the Śukla tīrtha
• Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 192: the Bhṛgu tīrtha
• Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 193: the Daśāśvamedha tīrtha, the Jāmadagnya tīrtha and the phalaśruti
• Padma Purāṇa, Svarga Khaṇḍa
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Svarga Khaṇḍa, Chapter 16
• Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarārdha, Chapter 77
• Kūrma Purāṇa