Kṛshṇā (River)
Kṛshṇā, “the dark one”
Prabhā has other meanings too: see all meanings of Prabhā. Kṛshṇa has other meanings too: see all meanings of Kṛshṇa.
Kṛshṇā is a river and tīrtha (sacred place) named in the Brahma Parva of the Bhavishya Purāṇa. Answering Rudra on the rathayātrā of Bhagavān Sūrya, Brahmā teaches that the water brought for Sūrya’s abhisheka is to be held in the mind as the water of each of the puṇya tīrthas. In order they are Prayāga, Pushkara, Kurukshetra, Naimiśa, Pṛthūdaka, Candrabhāgā, Śoṇa, Gokarṇa, Brahmāvarta, Kuśāvarta, Bilvaka, Nīlaparvata, Gaṅgādvāra, Gaṅgāsāgara, Kālapriya, Mitravana, Śuṇḍīra-kshetra, Cakratīrtha, Rāmatīrtha, Vitastā, Harshapantha, Devikā, Gaṅgā, Sarasvatī, Sindhu, Narmadā, Vipāśā, Yamunā, Tāpī, Śivā, Vetravatī, Godāvarī, Payoshṇī, Kṛshṇā, Veṇyā, Śatarudrā, Pushkariṇī, Kauśikī and Sarayū, with all the other puṇya tīrthas, the seas, the puṇya āśramas and the kshetras. All are to be contemplated as present in that water.
In the Brahma Purāṇa, Bhagavān Śiva, teaching Gautama Maharshi the glory of the tīrthas, names the meeting of three rivers, the Kṛshṇā, the Bhīmarathī and the Tuṅgabhadrā, as a tīrtha that grants moksha. The same Purāṇa names the river Kṛshṇaveṇī among the rivers born at the foot of the Sahya mountain.
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapter 55
The meeting of three rivers
Brahmā tells Nārada that after Gautama Maharshi had brought the Gaṅgā from the jaṭā of Bhagavān Śiva to Brahmagiri and released her, he asked Bhagavān Śiva for the rules of bathing in the tīrthas. Bhagavān Śiva taught them, and then spoke of the places where each river is holy. The Gaṅgā gives puṇya and moksha at three places: at Gaṅgādvāra, where she rises, at Prayāga, and where she falls into the ocean. The Narmadā is holy at the mountain Amarakaṇṭaka; the Yamunā where she joins the Gaṅgā at Prayāga; the Sarasvatī at Prabhāsa. And a tīrtha that grants moksha is the meeting of three rivers, the Kṛshṇā, the Bhīmarathī and the Tuṅgabhadrā. “But this Gautamī,” Bhagavān Śiva said, “grants moksha everywhere, at my command. Some tīrthas are especially full of puṇya on certain occasions, when the devas come to them; but the Gautamī is a tīrtha for everyone on every occasion.”
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 7
Where it rises
In its description of Bhārata-varsha, the Brahma Purāṇa names the rivers by the mountains they flow from: the Godāvarī, the Bhīmarathī, the Kṛshṇaveṇī and others are born at the foot of the Sahya mountain, one of the seven kula-parvatas.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 19
Sources
- Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapter 55
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 19; Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 7