Devikā

Devikā

Devikā is a holy river of Bhārata. The Vāmana Purāṇa calls her supremely holy, the giver of every siddhi and the destroyer of pāpa. On her eastern bank the mighty daitya Dhundhu began a hundred aśvamedha yajñas so that he might conquer Brahmaloka, and in her waters Bhagavān Vishṇu appeared as a drowning dwarf, asked Dhundhu for three steps of ground and, as Trivikrama, ended his rise. The great devotee Prahlāda bathed in the Devikā on his tīrtha-yātrā and worshipped Nṛsiṃha there, and the ṛshis of Kurujāṅgala bathed in her on their way north. Bhagavān Vāmana told Bharadvāja Ṛshi that at the Devikā he is present as Bhūdhara.

Dhundhu’s aśvamedha and the dwarf in the river

Pulastya Maharshi told Nārada of Dhundhu, a son of Kaśyapa Muni and Danu, of great strength. Dhundhu pleased Brahmā by tapas and gained the vara that he would not die at the hands of Indra and the other devas. Then he drove the devas from svarga and sat on Indra’s throne himself. Not content, he wished to conquer Brahmaloka as well, and he asked Śukrācārya, the purohita of the daityas, by what karma it could be reached. Śukra told him that long ago Indra had performed a hundred aśvamedha yajñas, and by the power of that puṇya had gone to Brahmaloka.

So Dhundhu resolved to perform a hundred aśvamedhas with dakshiṇās. He said to his people: “Summon all the ṛshis to the bank of the holy Devikā. That river is supremely holy and bestows every siddhi. On its eastern bank I shall take the aśvamedha dīkshā.” When the materials of the yajña were gathered, Dhundhu, on the eastern bank of the Devikā, destroyer of pāpa, at an auspicious muhūrta, took the dīkshā from Śukrācārya, Bhārgavendra, chief of the Bhārgavas. Only brāhmaṇas of Bhṛgu‘s lineage, Śukra’s disciples, served as ṛtvijas and sadasyas. The yajña horse was released, and the mahādaitya Asiloma went with it to guard it. The smoke of the great yajña spread over the earth in the ten directions and rose to svarga, and Vāyu carried its scent all the way to Brahmaloka.

The devas knew that the scent came from Dhundhu’s yajñaśālā. Afraid, they went with Indra to Janārdana, the protector of all the worlds, and pleaded: “The daitya Dhundhu, grown mighty by the varas of Brahmā, has seized svarga, and now he has taken the dīkshā for a hundred aśvamedhas to conquer even the dwellers of Brahmaloka. Prabho, think of a way to stop his yajña before it is complete.” Madhusūdana gave them abhaya (freedom from fear) and sent them back. Knowing that the daitya was invincible, Hari resolved to bind him by an upāya of māyā.

Then he took a dwarf form and, letting go in the waters of the Devikā, fell like a log of wood. With no support, his hair loose, he sank, rose and floated again, and so came into the sight of the daitya under dīkshā. Dhundhu, the ṛtvijas and the sadasyas all left the yajñaśālā, ran into the river and pulled out the drowning brāhmaṇa boy. “Who are you? Why did you fall into the water?” they asked. The dwarf told them that he was Gatibhāsa, the younger son of a learned brāhmaṇa named Prabhāsa of the Vāruṇa gotra. When their father died, his elder brother Netrabhāsa refused him any share, saying that dwarfs and the lame have no share in property. “By what nyāya (rule of law) do I have no share?” Gatibhāsa had asked, and at once his brother lifted him and threw him into this river. “For a year I have been carried along in this river’s waters,” he said, “and today you have saved me.”

The Bhārgava priests told him that the great one in dīkshā was Dhundhu, a great giver, and they counselled Dhundhu to give the boy a house, jewels and servants. Dhundhu offered him wealth, chariots, elephants and horses. But Bhagavān Vāmana said: “Can one who could not keep what his own brother took from him keep all this? Give these to a capable vipra. Give me three steps of ground to match the measure of my body; more than that I cannot protect.” The ṛtvijas and the daitya laughed, and Dhundhu gave him the gift of three steps of land.

As soon as the gift was made, Bhagavān Vishṇu, whose power is infinite, took the virāṭ (cosmic) form of the three steps and began to cover the three worlds. He slew all those rākshasas and bowed to the ṛshis. With the first step he covered the whole earth, with its oceans, mountains and towns. With the second he filled Bhuvarloka with svarga, and the sky with the circles of the sun, the moon, the planets and the stars. There was no place left for the third step that had been given, and Bhagavān Trivikrama let his body, vast as Mount Meru, fall upon the back of the dānava. At that place a pit thirty thousand yojanas wide was formed in the earth. He tore apart the daitya’s body, cast it into the pit and filled it with a great mass of sand. By the grace of Janārdana, Indra regained the lordship of svarga and ruled with the devas, free of enemies. Then Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa took the form of the river Kālindī at that place and withdrew from sight.

“In this way, in former times,” said Pulastya, “Vishṇu became Trivikrama to conquer the rākshasa Dhundhu.” To that holy āśrama Prahlāda came on his tīrtha-yātrā, which, Pulastya said, can wash away the mud of pāpa.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 52

On Prahlāda’s tīrtha-yātrā

On his tīrtha-yātrā Prahlāda came to Kurukshetra. There he worshipped Cakratīrtha, who is Sudarśana, and bathed by rule; he fasted that night, worshipped Kurudhvaja with bhakti and went, pure, to see Nṛsiṃha. The lord of the dānavas dipped in the river Devikā, worshipped Nṛsiṃha, stayed that night there, and the next day went on to the kshetra of Gokarṇa.

Later on the same yātrā Prahlāda came to Koṭitīrtha on the bank of the Sarasvatī, where Rudrakoṭeśvara shines. Countless brāhmaṇas gather there to see Mahādeva: the Naimishas, the Māgadhas, the Saindhavas, the Dharmāraṇyas, the Paushkareyas, the dwellers of Daṇḍakāraṇya, the Cāmpeyas, the dwellers of Bhārukaccha, and those living on the bank of the Devikā. To bless these devotees full of śraddhā, Bhagavān Śiva gave them darśana in a crore forms, and so he is called Rudrakoṭeśvara.

At the close of the yātrā Pulastya Maharshi said: whoever sings this puṇya-giving account of Prahlāda’s tīrtha-yātrā, hears it, or passes it on to others, is freed from all pāpa (sin).

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 55, 57

The maharshis bathe in the Devikā

When Bali came to Kurukshetra to perform his yajña, Śukrācārya invited only the brāhmaṇas of his own Bhṛgu lineage. Hearing this, the Ātreya, Gautama, Kauśika and Āṅgirasa brāhmaṇas who lived there left Kurujāṅgala and went north. They bathed in the Śatadru, in the Vipāśā, where they worshipped the pitṛs, in the Kiraṇā, which flowed from the rays of Sūrya, and in the Airāvatī, and they went on to the Īśvarī. “All those maharshis, Ātreya and the rest, bathed in the river Devikā,” Pulastya told Nārada. From there they went down into the Payoshṇī.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 62

Bhagavān Vāmana as Bhūdhara

When Bhagavān Vāmana had received his upanayana and mastered the Vedas, he asked Bharadvāja Ṛshi for leave to go to Kurukshetra, where Bali was performing the aśvamedha yajña. Bali could perform that yajña on earth, he said, only by the power of Vāmana’s own tejas-aṃśas, the portions of his splendour, and by gaining their presence; all of them could be seen there. Bharadvāja asked him in which places those aṃśas abide. Then Bhagavān Vāmana named the holy places in which he, the many-formed, dwells, and among them he said that at the river Devikā he is present as Bhūdhara.

Of all these places he said that they are sanātana (eternal), purātana (ancient) and pavitra (holy); they give dharma, they are full of tejas (divine radiance), they destroy pāpa, and they are always to be praised. Devas, humans and sādhyas who practise darśana (seeing), sparśana (touching), kīrtana (praising) and smaraṇa (remembering) of these forms surely gain all four purushārthas: dharma, artha, kāma and moksha. “This is certain,” said Bhagavān Vāmana.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 62–63

Sources

• Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 52, 55, 57, 62–63