Narmadā

The Narmadā is one of the most sacred rivers of Bhārata-varsha. She rises at Amarakaṇṭaka and flows west to the ocean through one hundred yojanas. The Agni Purāṇa calls her the tīrtha that purifies by darśana (sight) alone, a power no other river has. The Kūrma Mahā Purāṇa tells that she came from the body of Parameśvara Rudra himself. The Nārada and Matsya Purāṇas give her long lists of tīrthas and the merit gained at each.

The power of darśana

The Agni Purāṇa (Chapter 113) begins its teaching on the Narmadā with a comparison. The Gaṅgā purifies a being at once by sparśa (the touch of her waters). The Narmadā purifies by darśana alone. To see the Narmadā, without bathing, without any offering and without any other act, is enough to free a person from the pāpa (sin) built up. This is named as her special and highest mark among all sacred rivers (Agni Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 109 and 113).

Size and source

The Narmadā tīrtha-kshetra is one hundred yojanas long and two yojanas wide. Mount Amarakaṇṭaka, where the Narmadā rises, is the source of sixty crore and sixty thousand tīrthas on all four sides (Agni Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 109 and 113).

Tīrthas on the Narmadā in the Agni Purāṇa

The Agni Purāṇa names the Kāverī-saṅgama-tīrtha as especially pavitra (pure). It is the place where the Kāverī river meets the Narmadā.

In its list of the sacred tīrthas of Bhārata-varsha (Chapter 109), the Agni Purāṇa names the Narmadā beside the Godāvarī, Tuṅgabhadrā and Kāverī as the foremost rivers of the south that give liberation.

In the tīrtha-yātrā

The tīrtha-yātrā chapter of the Agni Purāṇa (Chapter 109) calls the river Rētā-Narmadā among the sacred rivers of the Dakshiṇa-deśa (the south). It groups her with Śrīparvata, Kolācala, Sahagiri, Malaya-giri, Godāvarī, Tuṅgabhadrā, Kāverī, Kāpī and Payoshṭī as supremely holy tīrthas that give liberation. These southern rivers are set level with the great northern tīrthas in giving the highest end (uttama-gati) (Agni Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 109 and 113).

The Narmadā in the Kūrma Mahā Purāṇa

The Uttarardha of the Kūrma Mahā Purāṇa (Chapters 38–40) gives the fullest account of the Narmadā among the Purāṇas.

Origin from Rudra’s body

The Uttarardha says that the Narmadā did not rise only from springs in the earth. She came from the body (śarīra) of Parameśvara Rudra himself, from the divine tejas (radiance) and moisture that flowed from Bhagavān Śiva’s body during his cosmic tapas. At Amarakaṇṭaka this divine flow became a living river flowing through Bhāratavarsha. The Narmadā is thus a direct form of Parameśvara: she is not only a river blessed by Bhagavān Śiva, but a river who is Śiva.

Greater than the Gaṅgā in some ways

The Uttarardha says that the purity of the Narmadā’s darśana goes beyond even the Gaṅgā in dissolving certain pāpa. The gravest of the great pāpas (mahāpātaka) is brahmahatyā, the killing of a brāhmaṇa. One day of fasting on the Narmadā’s banks can dissolve it. The usual prāyaścitta (atonement) for brahmahatyā is twelve years of carrying a skull (kapāla). The Narmadā is thus a river of great grace even for the worst wrongdoers.

The eighty-odd named tīrthas

The Uttarardha lists more than eighty named tīrthas along both the north and south banks of the Narmadā. Each one has:

• a set phala (fruit, merit) for those who bathe or do śrāddha there;
• a link with the past tapas of a certain ṛshi, or with a divine event;
• a Śivaliṅga or sacred mūrti set up at that spot.

Together the tīrthas cover the whole one-hundred-yojana length of the Narmadā, from Amarakaṇṭaka to the western ocean. They make one unbroken sacred path along one of the most powerful rivers of Bhāratavarsha.

Atonement at Rāmeśvara

Because the Narmadā rose from Rudra’s body and has power to dissolve brahmahatyā, the Uttarardha’s teaching on prāyaścitta names Rāmeśvara snāna as a full and valid substitute for the twelve-year prāyaścitta for brahmahatyā. This is bathing at the Rāmeśvara tīrtha on the Narmadā. The Rāma who bathed there is named as Paraśurāma, or in other places Rāmacandra, and the tīrtha has this special power.

(Kūrma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarardha, Chapters 38–40)

Narmadā Tīrtha Saṃgraha in the Nārada Mahā Purāṇa

Chapter 77 of the Uttarardha of the Nārada Mahā Purāṇa gives the fullest list of Narmadā tīrthas in any Purāṇa. It is told in the dialogue (saṃvāda) of Vasu and Mohinī and is called the “Narmadā Tīrtha Saṃgraha”. Vasu says that four hundred tīrthas stand on both banks of the Narmadā, in set numbers at key places.

The order of purification

The Uttarardha sets out an order among the great sacred rivers:

Sarasvatī’s waters purify in three days; Yamunā’s waters purify in seven days; Gaṅgā’s waters purify by a single snāna; Narmadā purifies by darśana alone.

The mere sight of the Narmadā purifies the one who sees her completely, without bathing, without dāna (gift) and without any other act. This is the special and highest mark of the Narmadā, as the Nārada Mahā Purāṇa declares. Whatever is done on the banks of the Narmadā becomes akshaya (without end) (Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarardha, Chapter 77).

The count of tīrthas

The Uttarardha gives this count.

The total of Narmadā tīrthas is sārdha-koṭi (three and a half crore). The text also names these: Daśāditya-tīrtha (9), Kapila-tīrtha (8), Nandi-tīrtha (1 crore and 8), and named Śaiva tīrthas making 1,900 separate sacred spots. The Vaishṇava tīrthas number 22. The Brahma-tīrthas are all of the Śaiva tīrthas. The Śākta tīrthas number 28: 3 Mātṛ-devatā tīrthas, 2 each for Sarasvatī and Lakshmī, and 16 Pārvatī-tīrthas. There is one Kshetrapāla tīrtha. The grand total of the avāntara, rahasyaka and prakāśa tīrthas together, as Vāyu-deva declares, is three crore and fifty lakh (3.5 crore). Every tīrtha of svarga, of the earth (bhū-loka) and of the sky (antarīksha) is present on the Narmadā (Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarardha, Chapter 77).

The phalaśruti

One who bathes at any tīrtha on the Narmadā reaches the highest end (uttama-gati). The Tīrtha Saṃgraha, written down and worshipped daily at home, brings these blessings. The house has no māri (epidemic) and no agni-bhaya (fear of fire). It has no rāja-cora-śatru-roga-bhaya (fear of rulers, thieves, enemies or disease). That house is always full of dhana-dhānya (wealth and grain) and shines without a break with good events, such as sons, grandsons and marriages (Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarardha, Chapter 77).

Narmadā Māhātmya in the Matsya Purāṇa

The Matsya Mahā Purāṇa (Chapters 185–193) holds a Narmadā Māhātmya of its own, told by Mārkaṇḍeya to Yudhishṭhira. It covers the origin, the main tīrthas and the phalaśruti of the river. Its main teachings are these.

Order of purification (Chapter 185): Sarasvatī purifies in three days, Yamunā in seven, and Gaṅgā by one bath. Narmadā purifies by darśana alone.

The source at Amarakaṇṭaka: Within two krośas of the source there are sixty crore and sixty thousand tīrthas. Rudra-koṭī (a crore of Rudra-liṅgas) and Mahendra-snāna are among the foremost.

Jvāleśvara Tīrtha (Chapters 186–187): The burning of Bāṇāsura’s Tripura in the sky, on the bank of the Narmadā, is given as the origin of the Jvāleśvara liṅga. Bhagavān Śiva held back the cosmic flames of the burning city and set up this liṅga at the spot.

Kauberī-Narmadā Saṃgama (Chapter 188): Here Kubera did tapas for one hundred years and received from Bhagavān Śiva the vara (boon) of rule over the yakshas. A bath here gives the phala of an aśvamedha and Rudra-loka.

Named tīrthas on both banks (Chapters 189–193): Śūlabheda (Paraśurāma’s Śivaliṅga), Māhishmatī, Śukla tīrtha (the phala of a hundred aśvamedhas), Bhṛgu tīrtha (where Bhṛgu’s tapas was broken and he made a Śiva-stotra; it equals a crore of tīrthas), Daśāśvamedha tīrtha, and Jāmadagnya tīrtha (the meeting of the Narmadā and the ocean, where Paraśurāma did his last śānti).

(Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 185–193)

Narmadā and the ancient king Duryodhana

The Anuśāsana Parva tells that in an age long before the Kuru-Pāṇḍava war, Narmadā loved with her whole heart and became the wife of an ancient rājarshi of the Ikshvāku line, named Duryodhana. He was a different king from the Kaurava prince of the same name. They had a lotus-eyed daughter, the princess Sudarśanā, whom Agni himself asked for in marriage. Sudarśanā’s son by Agni was Sudarśana, who conquered Mṛtyu through atithi-sevā (service to guests) (Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 2).

Sources

• Agni Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 109, 113
• Kūrma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarardha, Chapters 38–40
• Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarardha, Chapter 77
• Matsya Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 185–193
• Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 2