Akshayavaṭa (Gautamī)

Akshayavaṭa · akshaya-vaṭa, “the undecaying banyan”

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

Akshayavaṭa, the undecaying banyan, is the holy fig tree that stands at the place of Brahmā‘s first yajña, in the Daṇḍaka forest by the Gautamī. It was once the yūpa (the post of a yajña) that Brahmā set up for the yajña of creation; when the yajña was over and the yūpa was cast off, it became free from decay, a resort of Bhagavān Vishṇu worthy of pūjā by the worlds, eternal in the form of Time. Brahmā tells Nārada its origin in the Gautamī Māhātmya of the Brahma Purāṇa, and says that merely remembering Akshayavaṭa gives the merit of yajñas.

Brahmā’s yajña of creation

Brahmā tells Nārada a secret that even the ṛshis, devas, pitṛs and asuras do not know. Born in the lotus, he saw only the elements, earth, wind, ether, water and fire, and no other being; the Vedas were not yet present. Then a divine voice from the sky told him to create the worlds by yajña, for “yajña is Vishṇu” (yajño vai vishṇuḥ), and to worship the Yajña-Purusha, Hari, who is himself the yajña, svāhā, svadhā, the mantras and the havis. The voice sent him south of Meru, of Himavān, of the Vindhya and of the Sahya, to the Karmabhūmi, the land of holy rites. There the Vedas, the Itihāsas and the Purāṇas came to his memory, and he remembered the Purusha Sūkta and made the vessels and requisites of the yajña as it describes. The place of the yajña, called Brahmagiri, stretched twenty-four yojanas to the east.

He set up the three fires, Gārhapatya, Dakshiṇa and Āhavanīya, and divided his body in two, one half becoming his wife, for no yajña is complete without the wife. The seasons became the offerings: spring the ghee, summer the fuel, autumn the havis, the rains the kuśa grass. The Vedas were the seven enclosing sticks. Kāla, Time without beginning or end, took the form of the yūpa, and the three guṇas became the halter. At the word of the voice Brahmā praised Janārdana with the Purusha Sūkta, and tied the Purusha, his own source, beside the Kāla-yūpa with the halter of the guṇas. From the Purusha the whole universe came forth. When creation was complete, the voice told Brahmā to cast off the vessels, the yūpa, the Praṇītā vessel and the kuśa, and Bhagavān Vishṇu, Yajñeśvara, appeared in the three fires, white in the Āhavanīya, dark in the Dakshiṇa and yellow in the Gārhapatya.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 91

The yūpa becomes Akshayavaṭa

The yūpa that Brahmā had fashioned there was cast off with due rite, and it became a resort of Bhagavān Vishṇu, worthy of pūjā by the worlds. That glorious post became free from decay, and so the holy fig became Akshayavaṭa, the undecaying banyan. In the form of Time it is eternal.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 91

The Daṇḍaka forest

The place of Brahmā‘s divine yajña is called the Daṇḍaka forest. When the yajña was over Brahmā worshipped Bhagavān Vishṇu, bowed, and took leave of him, the one the Vedas call Virāṭ. The holy ground of the yajña stretches twenty-four yojanas, and three fire pits are there even today, in the form of Yajñeśvara, Bhagavān Vishṇu who bears the cakra. Even worms and insects that die there attain moksha. The Daṇḍaka forest is called the seed of dharma and the seed of moksha, and the part that touches the Gautamī most of all.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 91

The phala

Merely remembering Akshayavaṭa gives the merit of yajñas.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 91

Sources

• Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 91