Havyaghna

Havyaghna · havya-ghna, “the destroyer of the havis”

Kali has other meanings too: see all meanings of Kali. Sandhyā has other meanings too: see all meanings of Sandhyā. Prācīnabarhis has other meanings too: see all meanings of Prācīnabarhis.

Havyaghna, “the destroyer of the havis”, also called Yajñaghna, is a rākshasa of the Brahma Purāṇa who was born from the smoke of the puroḍāśa at Bharadvāja‘s yajña on the Gautamī. He was the eldest son of Sandhyā and Prācīnabarhis, black like his father, his mother and his younger brother Kālī, and he had from Brahmā the vara to devour yajñas as he pleased. Brahmā had also pronounced a śāpa on him, from which he would be freed only when excellent ṛshis sprinkled him with amṛta. Bharadvāja sprinkled him with the water of the Gaṅgā, and he became white; the place is Śuklatīrtha, “the white tīrtha”.

At Bharadvāja’s yajña

Brahmā tells Nārada that the ṛshi Bharadvāja and his wife Paiṭhīnasī were preparing the offerings to Agni and Soma and to Indra and Agni on the bank of the Gautamī. While the puroḍāśa, the rice-cake offering, was cooking, a terrible rākshasa was born from the smoke, a terror to the three worlds, wishing to devour it. Bharadvāja asked who he was, destroying his yajña. The rākshasa said: “Know me as Havyaghna, the eldest son of Sandhyā and Prācīnabarhis. Brahmā granted me this vara: ‘Devour yajñas as you please.’ My younger brother Kālī is strong and very terrible. I am black, my father is black, my mother is black, and so is my brother. I will destroy the yajña and cut the yūpa.”

Bharadvāja asked him to protect his yajña, for yajña was his beloved and eternal duty. Havyaghna told him that long ago Brahmā had pronounced a śāpa on him before the devas and dānavas, and that when he appeased Brahmā, the grandfather of the worlds said he would be freed when excellent ṛshis sprinkled him with amṛta. The amṛta, he said, is the water of the Gautamī, gold, cow’s ghee and Soma; or at least the water of the Gaṅgā, ghee and gold; and the water of the Gaṅgā is above all, divine amṛta.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 63

Made white

Bharadvāja took the water of the Gaṅgā in his palm and sprinkled the rākshasa, and the yūpa, the paśu and the vedi of the yajña. Everything became white, and the rākshasa who had been dark became white in a moment. Bharadvāja completed his yajña and cast the yūpa into the Gaṅgā, where it stands even today. Havyaghna said: “I am going, Bharadvāja. I have been made white. Those who bathe, give dāna or worship in this tīrtha will gain their desires and the fruit of this yajña; their pāpas are destroyed by merely remembering it.” From then on the tīrtha has been called Śuklatīrtha.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 63

Sources

• Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 63