Pitṛtīrtha of Cakreśvara (Gautamī)

Pitṛtīrtha · pitṛ-tīrtha, “the tīrtha of the ancestors”

Pitṛ-tīrtha has other meanings too: see all meanings of Pitṛ-tīrtha.

Pitṛtīrtha is a tīrtha on the Gautamī Gaṅgā (the Godāvarī), one of three tīrthas that came forth from the tīrtha of Cakreśvara, Bhagavān Śiva, at Pippala in the Daṇḍaka forest. It is the place where the bones of the ṛshi Dadhīci, which the devas had taken to make their weapons, were washed and became sacred. It increases the delight of the pitṛs (the ancestors), and any being whose ashes, bones, nails or hair fall into it, even one who has done pāpa, stays in svarga as long as the moon, the sun and the stars last. Brahmā tells Nārada of it in the Gautamī Māhātmya of the Brahma Purāṇa.

The bones of Dadhīci

Dadhīci had given up his life so that the devas could make weapons from his bones, and at the devas’ bidding bullocks, given faces as hard as the vajra, had torn open his body and licked the bones clean. Later, when Dadhīci’s son Pippalāda had been calmed by Bhagavān Śiva at Cakreśvara and the Kṛtyā born of his eyes had been sent away, the devas said to Śiva: “Tell us how to purify the bones of the cows and our own bones.” Śiva said to all: “By bathing carefully in the Gaṅgā, the devas and the cows are freed from their pāpas. There is no doubt of this.” Then the bones taken from the body of the ṛshi were washed there, and once washed, they became sacred.

The three tīrthas from Cakreśvara

So from the tīrtha of Cakreśvara three tīrthas came forth:

  • Pāpanāśana, where the devas were freed of their pāpas; a bath and dāna there destroy even the pāpa of brahmahatyā (killing a brāhmaṇa).
  • Gotīrtha, where the cows were purified; a wise devotee who bathes there gains the fruit of a go-yajña.
  • Pitṛtīrtha, the place where the bones of that brāhmaṇa became sacred.

Then the purified cows and the devas spoke to Śambhu, took leave and went to their abodes.

The phala

Pitṛtīrtha increases the delight of the pitṛs. If the ashes, bones, nails or hair of any living being, even one who has done pāpa, fall into this tīrtha, he stays in svarga as long as the moon, the sun and the stars last.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 40

Sources

  • Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 40