Five Coastal Tīrthas and the Apsarās
Arjuna, the son of Pāṇḍu, went on a twelve-year tīrtha-yātrā (pilgrimage). On the southern sea-coast he came to five holy tīrthas that the ascetics had left in fear. Five crocodiles lived in their waters. In truth the crocodiles were five apsarās (heavenly dancers) who had been put under a śāpa (curse) by a brahmin. Arjuna lifted each one out of the water and set her free.
This episode is told at the start of the Kaumārika Khaṇḍa and gives the Khaṇḍa its frame.
The five tīrthas
The Kaumārika Khaṇḍa opens with the Sūta Ugraśrava (also called Romaharshaṇa). He tells the gathered ṛshis about the glory of Kumāranātha, who is Skanda, and about the wonders of the coastal tīrthas that belong to him. Inside this telling, he describes how Arjuna reached the five tīrthas on his pilgrimage:
- Kumāreśa tīrtha, the foremost, sacred to Kumāra (Skanda)
- Stambheśvara tīrtha, dear to Saubhadra Muni
- Barkaraśvara tīrtha, dear to Paulomī (Indrāṇī)
- Mahākāla tīrtha, dear to King Karandama
- Siddheśa tīrtha, dear to Bharadvāja
Together these five tīrthas are said to hold the puṇya (merit) of all tīrthas. Nārada and other great ṛshis say that a pilgrimage to them gives matchless puṇya.
But when Arjuna arrived, he saw something troubling. The tīrthas were empty. The ṛshis and tapasvis (ascetics) who should have been bathing and living there had run away.
Why the tīrthas were empty
Arjuna asked the ṛshis living nearby why such blessed tīrthas had been left. They told him that five crocodiles lay in the waters. They seized and killed any ascetic who went in, and many kings and ṛshis had already been dragged down. The ṛshis begged Arjuna not to enter. They said that such a death would be like a grasshopper destroying itself.
Arjuna’s answer
Arjuna answered without fear. He said that a life given up for dharma is no loss. Those who give up life, wealth, wife, sons, land and home for dharma, he said, are the true human beings. The ṛshis were moved by his courage and his firm belief. They blessed him and let him go on.
The apsarās are freed
As soon as Arjuna entered the water of Stambheśvara tīrtha, a large crocodile seized him. Arjuna had great bodily strength. He lifted the crocodile out of the water. The moment it was above the surface, it turned into a beautiful woman wearing divine ornaments. She said that her name was Varcā. She was a dear companion of Kubera and used to live freely in the forest of the devas, Nandanakānana.
Varcā then told what had happened. She and her four companions, Saurabheyī, Sāmeyī, Budbuda and Latā, had once gone to a lonely brahmin who was studying alone in the forest. His tapas had filled the whole forest with a light like the sun. The five wanted to disturb him for fun. They came near him dancing and singing and showing their charms. The brahmin did not move.
He grew angry at their rudeness and put a śāpa on them: “You shall be crocodiles, living in water, for one hundred years.”
The five were sorry and afraid. They gave themselves up to him and begged his forgiveness. The brahmin was calmed. He told them that when a man lifted them out of the water, they would get their own forms back. He also spoke to them at length about the holiness of the householder’s life, about right union, and about the pāpa (sin) of misusing the power to create. He gave this teaching to correct the way they had behaved.
After the śāpa, the five met Nārada. He sent them to these five tīrthas. He foretold that Arjuna, the son of Pāṇḍu, would come on his pilgrimage and set them free.
Arjuna then went on to the other four tīrthas, one after another, and lifted out each of the other crocodiles. In this way all five apsarās were freed and returned to their divine forms. They bowed to Arjuna with thanks, blessed him with victory, and went up to the world of the devas.
Arjuna’s question
As they were leaving, Arjuna asked a sharp question. Nārada himself holds these tīrthas holy. How had he let the apsarās live there as crocodiles and foul the sacred waters? The Nava-durgās and the Siddha-gaṇapati are also present in this region. Why had none of them removed the trouble?
The apsarās pointed to Nārada, who was just then coming near. Nārada went on to tell more of the glories of the tīrthas, and this makes up the rest of the Khaṇḍa’s frame.
Sources
- Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 1