Vṛddheśvara
Vṛddheśvara · vṛddha-īśvara, “the lord of the aged one”
Gautama has other meanings too: see all meanings of Gautama.
Vṛddheśvara is Bhagavān Śiva at Vṛddha-saṅgama, the confluence of the river Vṛddhā with the Gautamī. The liṅga there was installed by the ṛshi Vṛddha-gautama and is glorified by the name Vṛddha. Brahmā tells Nārada that the tīrtha where Śiva is called Vṛddheśvara destroys pāpa, and that bathing and dāna there grant every desire.
The noseless ṛshi
There was a ṛshi of the line of Gautama, born without a nose and so ugly to look at. Shy and reserved, he had no guru and no fellow pupils; his father Gautama initiated him into the Vedas with great difficulty and then went away. The boy kept only his vratas, the agnihotra and the Gāyatrī, and so kept his brāhmaṇa-hood. He grew long-lived, but no one would give him a daughter in marriage, and he wandered through the tīrthas, forests and āśramas of many lands.
The aged maiden of the cave
In the Himālaya he came to a cave overgrown with creepers, and inside he found a lean old woman, a maiden keeping brahmacarya and doing tapas alone. When he made to bow to her she stopped him: “You are about to become my guru; a guru must not bow to his disciple.” She told him that she was the daughter of King Ṛtadhvaja and of Suśyāmā, daughter of the king of the gandharvas, who had met in that very cave; her mother had told her that the man who entered the cave would be her husband. Her father had ruled for eighty thousand years and her brother for ten thousand, and she had waited there, sought by no one.
Gautama said: “I am a thousand years old, and you are older still. I have no tapas, no learning and no wealth, and I have no nose.” She answered that Brahmā had given him to her and that she would give up her life if he refused her. She had pleased Devī Sarasvatī, the Waters and Agni by her tapas, and by their grace she made Gautama learned and handsome. Then he married her and lived happily with her in the cave for many years.
The mockery and Agastya’s counsel
When Vasishṭha, Vāmadeva and other ṛshis came to the cave on their pilgrimage, the couple received them with honour, but some of the young sons and disciples of the ṛshis laughed to see the radiant Gautama with the aged woman, and asked whether he was her son or grandson. Ashamed and grieved, Gautama asked Agastya Maharshi where happiness could be found, and Agastya said: “All desires are fulfilled at the river Gautamī. Go there; I shall follow.”
Gautama’s stotra and the Gautamī’s grace
On the Gautamī, Gautama did tapas with his wife and praised Bhagavān Vishṇu and Śambhu: “Like a tree to travellers in the desert, O Śiva, you with your consort are the one refuge of the distressed. O Kṛshṇa, you remove the pāpas of all beings, like the rain-cloud to plants withering in drought. O Gautamī, you are the ladder to the fort of Vaikuṇṭha, the river of amṛta.” The Gautamī, pleased, told him to pour her water, consecrated with mantras, over his wife, and then to let her pour it over him. They did so, and both gained beautiful forms.
The river Vṛddhā and the liṅga
The water of that bathing became a river, famous by the old woman’s name as the Vṛddhā, and the ṛshis called Gautama Vṛddha-gautama. Vṛddhā asked the Gautamī: “Let this river bear my name, and let its confluence with you be an excellent tīrtha. By bathing, dāna and homa there let it increase beauty, good fortune, wealth, sons and grandsons; let it give long life, health, victory and joy, and sanctify the pitṛs.” “Let it be so,” said the Gautamī. The liṅga that Gautama installed there is glorified by the name Vṛddha, and the tīrtha has been called Vṛddha-saṅgama ever since.
Phala
- The tīrtha where Bhagavān Śiva is called Vṛddheśvara destroys pāpa.
- Bathing and dāna there grant every desired thing.
- By the vara of the Gautamī, bathing, dāna and homa at the confluence increase beauty, fortune, wealth and offspring, give long life, health, victory and joy, and sanctify the pitṛs.
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 37