Jābāli (Farmer of the Gautamī)

Jābāli, “of the line of Jabāla”

Jābāli has other meanings too: see all meanings of Jābāli.

Jābāli was a brāhmaṇa farmer who tilled the land. Even at midday he never let his bullocks rest, and he beat them with his whip on their backs and sides. Their tears moved Kāmadhenu and Nandī, and from this came the Gosava yajña on the banks of the Gautamī and the Govardhana Tīrtha. He is not the Jābāli named among the ṛshis at Daśaratha‘s aśvamedha.

The bullocks of Jābāli

Brahmā tells Nārada the account of the Govardhana Tīrtha, whose power, he says, he himself has tested. Seeing Jābāli’s bullocks with tears in their eyes, Kāmadhenu, the mother of the worlds, spoke to Nandī. Nandī too was distressed and told everything to Bhagavān Śiva, and Bhagavān Śiva said to him: “May whatever you say be fulfilled.”

With Bhagavān Śiva’s leave, Nandī withdrew all the cattle. When the cows had vanished from svarga and from the world of men, the devas hurried to Brahmā, saying that it was impossible to live without cows. Brahmā sent them to Bhagavān Śiva, and Bhagavān Śiva told them, “My bull knows everything.” The bull told the devas to perform the Gosava yajña, by which they would gain all cows, divine and human. The devas performed it on the banks of the Gautamī, and the cattle increased again. So the tīrtha was named Govardhana, “the increase of cows”.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 21

Sources

• Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 21