Bhadrakarṇahrada

Bhadrakarṇahrada · bhadra-karṇa-hrada, “the lake of Bhadrakarṇa”

Bhadrakarṇahrada is a holy tīrtha (a sacred place of pilgrimage and bathing) named in the Brahma Purāṇa’s great list of the tīrthas and kshetras of the earth. The list is given in Chapter 25, the Sarva-tīrtha-māhātmya, “the glory of all the tīrthas”. The Purāṇa gives it by name only, with no word on where it lies or how it came by its name.

In the list of tīrthas

Asked by the brāhmaṇas how many holy tīrthas and kshetras there are on the earth, the teller first speaks of the inner tīrtha: one whose hands, feet and mind are under control, and whose mind, speech and senses are pure, already carries the tīrthas within his own body, and wherever such a person lives is for him Kurukshetra, Prayāga and Pushkara. Then he names the tīrthas of the earth, beginning with Pushkara. In that long list Bhadrakarṇahrada comes after Rudrāvarta, Sugandhāśva and Kapilāvana, and before Śaṅkukarṇahrada, Saptasārasvata and Auśanasa.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 25

The rite and its phala

The chapter gives one rite for all the tīrthas of the list. One who serves these tīrthas with śraddhā (faith), performs the bath and the other prescribed acts, keeps the fast, is master of his senses, offers tarpaṇa (libations of water) to the devas, the ṛshis and the pitṛs, worships the devatās, and fasts there for three nights, gains distinct and endless fruits, and by them the fruit of the aśvamedha yajña. “There is no doubt,” the teller says.

The phalaśruti of the chapter: one who hears or reads this glory of the tīrthas every day is freed from every pāpa (sin).

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 25

Sources

• Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 25