Mahānadī

Mahānadī · mahā-nadī, “the great river”

The Mahānadī, “the great river”, is a holy river of Bhārata. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa names it among the six rivers of the Draviḍa country whose water purifies the heart of those who drink it and awakens in them bhakti for Vāsudeva, and among the great rivers of Bhārata in whose waters the people bathe, rivers that purify one merely by remembering their names.

A river that gives bhakti

In Nārada Maharshi‘s report to Vasudeva of the teaching of the yogīśvaras to King Nimi, Karabhājana says that the people of the Kṛta, Tretā and Dvāpara yugas wish to be born in the Kali yuga, for then bhaktas whose highest goal is Nārāyaṇa alone are born here and there, and very many of them in the Draviḍa country. In the Draviḍa country are six rivers, in order: Tāmraparṇī, Kṛtamālā, Payasvinī, the supremely pure Kāverī, Pratīcī and Mahānadī. Those who drink the water of these rivers mostly have their inner faculty (antaḥkaraṇa) purified, and bhakti for Vāsudeva arises in them.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 5

Among the great rivers of Bhārata

In Śrī Śuka Maharshi’s account of Bhārata khaṇḍa, the people of Bhārata bathe in the waters of its many rivers, which purify one merely by remembering their names. Of the forty-two great rivers he names, the Mahānadī is the twenty-third, after Narmadā, Carmaṇvatī and Sindhu and before Vedasmṛti and Ṛshikulyā.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 19

Sources

• Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 19; Skandha 11, Chapter 5