Bāhudā

Bāhudā · bāhu-dā, “the giver of arms”

Bāhudā is a holy river of Bhārata. The Vāmana Purāṇa counts her among the twenty-six rivers that rise from the foot-lands of Himavat, and like all the great rivers of the land she is called supremely pure and a wife of the ocean. When Skanda was consecrated at Kurukshetra as the leader of the armies of the devas, the Bāhudā gave him the gaṇa Śataśīrsha, “the hundred-headed”, to serve him.

Among the rivers of Himavat

The ṛshis of a forest in Magadha told the rākshasa king Sukeśī of Kumāra-dvīpa, the land of Bhārata, with its mountains and its rivers. “Now we tell of the best rivers, which give water to these lands,” they said. Twenty-six rivers rise from the foot-lands of Himavat: the Sarasvatī, Pañcarūpā, Kālindī, Hiraṇvatī, Śatadru, Candrikā, Nīlā, Vitastā, Airāvatī, Kuhū, Madhurā, Hārarāvī, Uśīrā, Dhātukī, Rasā, Gomatī, Dhūtapāpā, Bāhudā, Dṛshadvatī, Niścirā, Gaṇḍakī, Citrā, Kauśikī, Vadūsarā, Sarayū and Lauhitya.

All these rivers, the ṛshis said, are supremely pure (parama-pavitra), and they are the wives of the ocean. Besides them there are many thousands of small rivers; some flow in every season and others only in the rains, and all give water in plenty to the lands within their reach.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 13

Her gift to Skanda

When Skanda, the son of Bhagavān Śiva, was born in the Śaravaṇa forest, the devas took him to Kurukshetra and consecrated him with the waters of the Sarasvatī as the leader of all the deva armies. Then the devas, the mountains and the ocean gave him gaṇas (attendants) to serve him, and the rivers too came with their gifts, one after another. Among them the Bāhudā gave Skanda the gaṇa Śataśīrsha, “the hundred-headed”. “In this way,” the text says, “all the rivers helped in the work of Kārttikeya.”

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 31

Sources

• Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 13, 31