Kalāpagrama is a village of great holiness described in the Kaumārika Khaṇḍa. In it the “half-seed” (ardha-bīja) of the goodness of the Kṛta Yuga was kept safe. It is a village of brāhmaṇas, said to be of the solar and lunar dynasties, who lived in permanent āśramas (hermitages). The sounds “Svāhā, Svadhā, Vashaṭ, Hanta” were heard there all the time.

Two important events of the Kaumārika Khaṇḍa take place here. Nārada put twelve questions to the assembled brāhmaṇas, and the child Sutanu answered them. Later, King Indradyumna and four cursed animal-souls came here and found Lomaśa Muni, who taught them about antaryoga, bahiryoga and the power of Śiva-bhakti. Later still, Dharmavarmā, king of Saurāshṭra, was led by Nārada to give land near the Mahīsāgara Saṃgama for the brāhmaṇas of Kalāpagrama to live on.

Description and character

In Kalāpagrama the Vedic way of life stayed whole. The half-seed of Kṛta Yuga virtue was kept here while other lands fell under the power of lesser yugas. The holy words were heard without a break: Svāhā (said for the devas), Svadhā (for the pitṛs), Vashaṭ (for the yajña fire) and Hanta (for auspicious events). This shows an unbroken Vedic ceremonial life.

The brāhmaṇas lived all the time in āśramas, busy with yajña (fire ritual), svādhyāya (study of the Vedas) and philosophical debate. They were eager debaters. When Nārada arrived he found them in lively argument, each one wanting to speak first. The village was a surviving community of the ideal brāhmaṇa life of the Kṛta Yuga in the present age. (Chapter 5)

Nārada’s visit and the twelve questions

Nārada came to Kalāpagrama after twelve years of tīrtha-yātrā (pilgrimage). He entered the brāhmaṇa āśramas, raised his hands and said, “Stop your clamoring! If you have jñāna (knowledge), answer my hard questions.” The brāhmaṇas agreed eagerly.

Nārada put twelve hard questions. The brāhmaṇas called them “children’s questions” and sent him to the youngest among them, a boy named Sutanu, to answer.

Sutanu’s answers to Nārada’s questions became one of the best known teachings of the Kaumārika Khaṇḍa. They cover:

The 52 mātṛkā-aksharas (letters of the alphabet) as a map of the cosmos. The alphabet holds the 14 Manus, 12 Ādityas, 11 Rudras and 8 Vasus.
The twenty-five tattvas (principles). The body is the house of Bhagavān Śiva.
Lobha (greed) as the greatest crocodile.
The eight grades of brāhmaṇas, from mātra up to muni.
The yugādis: the tithis (lunar days) on which the four yugas begin.
The manvantarādis: the tithis on which the fourteen manvantaras begin.
Ratha-Saptamī, the day on which Bhagavān Sūrya first mounted his chariot.
Constant begging as the cause of endless distress.
The two paths: arcirmārga, which leads to moksha (liberation), and dhūmamārga, which leads to rebirth.

After Sutanu had answered, Nārada made known who he was. He declared that the brāhmaṇas of Kalāpagrama were the Vedas themselves in living form. (Chapter 5)

Lomaśa Muni at Kalāpagrama

The turtle Jayadata found Lomaśa Muni at Kalāpagrama. Jayadata later sent Indradyumna and the four animal-souls there. When they arrived, they found Lomaśa walking the path of Maitreya. His matted hair (jaṭā) was yellow from bathing three times a day (trishavaṇa-snāna). His body shone as if soaked in ghee. In his left hand he held a grass fan and in his right a rudrāksha-mālā. He had no āśrama, not even a hut, only the shade of a few blades of grass.

At Kalāpagrama Lomaśa welcomed the group. He taught Indradyumna his well known teaching on impermanence, on dāna (giving) as the true home, and on the paths of antaryoga and bahiryoga. Then he told the four animal-souls to go to Saṃvarta Muni in Vārāṇasī. This direction set the whole group on the road to the Mahīsāgara Saṃgama and to final liberation. (Chapter 12)

Land given by Dharmavarmā

Nārada, in the form of an old brāhmaṇa, visited Dharmavarmā, king of Saurāshṭra. He explained the śloka on dāna spoken by a voice from the sky (ākāśavāṇī), which no other scholar could understand. The grateful king offered the reward he had promised: seven hundred crore cows, an equal weight of gold, and seven villages.

Nārada took none of these. He asked for land: seven gavyūtis of land (about 28 miles) near the Mahīsāgara Saṃgama, for the brāhmaṇas of Kalāpagrama to settle on. Dharmavarmā gave it at once. This gift joined the people of Kalāpagrama, who kept the Kṛta Yuga half-seed of virtue, to the supreme tīrtha of the western coast. (Chapter 4)

Sources

Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārika Khaṇḍa, Chapters 4, 5 and 12
Chapter 4: the land given by Dharmavarmā
Chapter 5: the description of the village, and Nārada’s twelve questions answered by Sutanu
Chapter 12: Lomaśa Muni at Kalāpagrama