Mahīsāgara Saṃgama Māhātmya

The Mahīsāgara Saṃgama is the place where the sacred Mahī river joins the western sea. The Kaumārika Khaṇḍa of the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa describes it as one of the most remarkable tīrthas (holy places).

The text says its māhātmya (greatness) is higher than that of Prayāga for snāna (sacred bathing), higher than Kurukshetra for dāna (giving), and higher than Gayā for piṇḍadāna (the offering of rice balls to the ancestors). Its waters are made of the sacred waters of all the tīrthas on earth. They came out of the earth through the heat of king Indradyumna’s great yajña (fire ritual). Nārada, Saṃvarta Muni and Bhartṛyajña all speak of its great holiness. In the end Indradyumna set up a liṅga, the Indradyumneśvara, at this place, and then reached śivagaṇatva, the state of a gaṇa (attendant) of Bhagavān Śiva.

How the Mahī river began

The Mahī was not formed only by mountain streams. It began with a great event. King Indradyumna performed a yajña so intense that it heated the earth to a depth of two aṅgulas. The heat drove the sacred waters of all the tīrthas in all directions out of the earth’s body, just as sap rises from a heated tree.

These waters came from Vārāṇasī, Kurukshetra, Gaṅgā, Revā, Sarasvatī, Tāpī, Payoshṇī, Nirvindhyā, Candrabhāga, Irāvatī, Kāverī, Śarayū, Gaṇḍakī, Naimisha, Gayā, Godāvarī and hundreds of other sacred rivers. They joined and flowed together as one stream. That stream is the Mahī river.

Saṃvarta Muni said: “This Mahī is born in the Mālavā country and flows south to the western ocean. In its waters is the essence of twenty thousand and six hundred yojanas of sacred tīrthas.” So one snāna at Mahīsāgara gives the puṇya (merit) of bathing in all those tīrthas at the same time.

(Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 13)

The eighteen names of the Mahī

The eighteen sacred names of the Mahī are to be recited during snāna and śrāddha (the rite for the ancestors):

  1. Tāmrā
  2. Rasyā
  3. Payovāhā
  4. Pitṛprītipradā
  5. Śubhā
  6. Sasyamālā
  7. Mahāsindhu
  8. Dāturdātrī
  9. Pṛthustutā
  10. Indradyumnakavyā
  11. Kshitijanmā
  12. Irāvatī
  13. Mahīparla
  14. Mahīśṛṅga
  15. Gaṅgā
  16. Paścimavāhinī
  17. Nadī
  18. Rājanadī

A person who recites this list of names during snāna or śrāddha reaches the sacred abode of Bhagavān Vishṇu.

The arghya mantra (the mantra for the offering of water) for the Mahī is: “Viśvamohini, you are the queen of rivers. You are the great joy of the Mahī waters. O Mahī, remove my pāpa (sin).”

(Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 13)

Greater than other tīrthas

The text states plainly how Mahīsāgara Saṃgama compares with other tīrthas:

  • Snāna at Mahīsāgara gives more puṇya than snāna at Prayāga.
  • Dāna at Mahīsāgara gives more puṇya than dāna at Kurukshetra.
  • Piṇḍadāna at Mahīsāgara pleases the pitṛs (ancestors) more than piṇḍadāna at Gayā.

(Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 13)

Śanivāra amāvāsyā

When Nārada lived at Mahīsāgara, the grahas (planets) came before him and offered him varas (boons). Śani (Saturn) gave a special vara. On Śanivāra amāvāsyā, the new-moon day that falls on a Saturday, the tīrtha gains great power. On that day the puṇya of snāna, dāna and śrāddha at Mahīsāgara is called Pushkara-parva, the most sacred of all festival-tīrthas.

The rite for this day:

  • Make an image of Śani from iron (loha) and an image of Sūrya from gold.
  • Do pūjā to Śani with Śani mantras and to Sūrya with Sūrya mantras.
  • Offer arghya to Bhāskara (Sūrya) to remove all pāpa.
  • The Śanivāra amāvāsyā is called a Pushkara-parva. It is one hundred times more meritorious than an ordinary Ravi-parva.

Other good days at Mahīsāgara are Śanivāra amāvāsyā in the month of Śrāvaṇa (when the moon cannot be seen), the solar saṃkrānti, and Vyatīpāta yoga. The puṇya on these days is ananta (endless).

(Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 13)

The five liṅgas and the pañcatīrtha

Five sacred liṅgas stand at the Mahīsāgara Saṃgama. A person who does pañcatīrtha snāna at the five connected spots on Somavāra (Monday) with bhakti (devotion) is freed from the five mahāpātakas (great pāpas).

One of the five liṅgas is the Indradyumneśvara. King Indradyumna set it up at this very confluence before he reached śivagaṇatva.

(Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 13)

Saṃvarta Muni speaks of Mahīsāgara

Saṃvarta Muni was a great yogī who lived in disguise in Vārāṇasī. He sent the group that included Indradyumna and Mārkaṇḍeya to the Mahīsāgara Saṃgama. He called it the supreme tīrtha for all four of the long-lived souls in animal bodies to reach moksha (liberation).

He said: “All tīrthas together are in Mahīsāgara. I lived there myself for many years. But I came away, afraid of Marutta, who troubled me. Go there quickly.”

He also told them about Bhartṛyajña. Yājñavalkya was reborn as Bhartṛyajña because, in a past life, he had insulted a mongoose. Bhartṛyajña was doing pūjā to the Mahākāla liṅga that had appeared at Mahīsāgara.

(Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 13)

The Babbru tīrtha

Within Mahīsāgara is a spot called the Babbru tīrtha. It is named after the earlier life of Yājñavalkya. In that life he received a śāpa (curse) for calling a mongoose a nakula, a word used as an insult. The word babbru (mongoose) stays in the name of the tīrtha.

(Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 13)

Devaśarman and Subhadra

The Mahīsāgara Saṃgama is also linked with Devaśarman and Subhadra. One was an ascetic and the other a householder. At this confluence their puṇyas were shown to be equal.

(Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 3)

The brāhmaṇas of Kalāpagrama

Nārada tested the twenty-six thousand brāhmaṇas of Kalāpagrama with his twelve questions. He was satisfied with their answers and settled them at Mahīsāgara. They lived there continuously and made the tīrtha holier still.

(Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 6)

Rites at Mahīsāgara

The text gives several rites for this tīrtha:

  • Taking an oath. A person accused of wrongdoing stands in the water up to the navel, raises the right hand and calls on the truth of the tīrtha. The tīrtha itself decides who is guilty. A guilty person gets a fever within seven days. An innocent person is not harmed.
  • Kaṅkaṇa-kshepaṇa. To offer a silver bracelet (rajata-kaṅkaṇa) to the tīrtha gives birth in a prosperous household. To offer a gold bracelet removes the fear of poverty.
  • Piṇḍadāna. Piṇḍadāna here pleases the pitṛs as much as at Gayāśiras, or more.

Sources

  • Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 3
  • Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 6
  • Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapter 13