Pāpavināśana Tīrtha (Rāmasetu)

Pāpavināśana Tīrtha is a tīrtha (pilgrimage place) on Mount Gandhamādana, within the Setu-kshetra of Rāmasetu. Its name means “destroyer of pāpa” (sin). The Skanda Mahā Purāṇa tells how the ṛshi Agastya sent a brāhmaṇa named Sumati to bathe here, so that his son, who had fallen into the brahma-rākshasa form, could be freed.

Location

Pāpavināśana Tīrtha lies on Mount Gandhamādana, in the Setu-kshetra linked with Rāmasetu. It is one of the twenty-four tīrthas of the Setu-kshetra that the second chapter of the Setu Māhātmya lists.

Dṛḍhamati and Sumati

The power of this tīrtha is shown through two people, Dṛḍhamati, a śūdra, and Sumati, a brāhmaṇa.

Sumati’s son had done severe pāpa. He was living in the terrible form of a brahma-rākshasa. In his distress, Sumati went for counsel to the great ṛshi Agastya, who was then in the Setu-kshetra. Agastya told the brāhmaṇa to send his son to bathe at Pāpavināśana Tīrtha. The son did so, and he was freed at once from the brahma-rākshasa form.

Merit of bathing here

The name Pāpavināśana tells what this tīrtha does: it destroys all pāpa. Even the gravest pātakas (great sins), including brahmahatyā (the killing of a brāhmaṇa) and the brahma-rākshasa existence, are dissolved by bathing here.

The tīrtha on Veṅkaṭādri has the same name and the same power.

Sources

• Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Brahma Khaṇḍa, Setu Māhātmya, Chapter 10