The Cows of Goloka at Khaṇḍatīrtha

Chapter 144 of the Uttara Khaṇḍa of the Padma Mahā Purāṇa tells how the cows of Goloka, the world of the divine cows, were cursed by Bhagavān Śiva and sent to the earth. They were freed when they bathed in the pool called Khaṇḍa, near Brahmavallī on the bank of the river Śābhramatī.

The episode explains the name Khaṇḍatīrtha and the holy status of the Gohrada (the cow-pool). It is told inside the larger māhātmya (account of the greatness) of the Śābhramatī river.

The event in Goloka

In Goloka, the world of the divine cows, the bull Vṛsha was playing with the mothers, the cows. During this play his dung and urine fell on the head of Bhagavān Śiva, who is also called Hara. Bhagavān Śiva was angry at this fault and cursed the cows: “O cows, you will lose your understanding and go to the earth.”

The cows are the mothers of all the worlds and are held holy in every age. Yet by this curse (śāpa) of Bhagavān Śiva they had to leave Goloka and live on the earth.

The cows ask to be released

The cursed cows went back to Bhagavān Śiva and asked him: “O Prabhu Śiva, may we return to our own world?”

Bhagavān Śiva replied: “When you bathe in the pool called Khaṇḍa, near Brahmavallī, at the holy place on the bank of the Śābhramatī, you will surely reach svarga (heaven).”

So the cows, together with Vṛsha, the lord of cows, bathed in that pool. They became perfectly pure and went back to svarga, where they lived again near Mahādeva.

The name of the tīrtha

The place is called Khaṇḍatīrtha, or Vṛshatīrtha. The cows, the mothers of the world, had fallen because of a curse. At this place they were protected through Dharma in the form of Khaṇḍa.

The pool on the Śābhramatī is holy because of the memory of the freeing of the divine cows. Bathing there gives the puṇya (merit) of giving a crore of cows. The Gohrada at this place is especially holy for offering piṇḍa (rice balls) to cows. A man who stays there without food and offers piṇḍa to the cows enjoys happiness for as long as fourteen Indras rule.

The fruits of Khaṇḍatīrtha

Bhagavān Śiva tells this account to Pārvatī and declares these fruits:

• A man who bathes at Khaṇḍatīrtha gets the puṇya of giving a crore of cows.
• A man who drinks bull’s urine there, treated as holy water, is made pure at that very moment.
• There is no tīrtha better than Khaṇḍatīrtha.
• A man who honours the cows there lives in Goloka for a long time.
• Those who make ten golden images of cows and give them to a brāhmaṇa at Khaṇḍatīrtha receive endless fruit.
• Those who plant a pippala tree (the aśvattha) there go to the world of their ancestors. Those who plant five āmalakī trees go to the world of Vishṇu.

Sources

• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 144