Madhūvaṭa

Madhūvaṭa · madhū-vaṭa, “the banyan of honey”

Madhūvaṭa is a holy tīrtha named in the Brahma Purāṇa’s great list of the tīrthas and kshetras of the earth, 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; whoever bathes there with the rite the chapter gives gains the fruit of the aśvamedha yajña.

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 who has jñāna (knowledge), tapas and a good name, gains the fruit of serving all the tīrthas. When the mind, speech and senses are pure, these are tīrthas within one’s own body and show the path to svarga. If the inner faculty is corrupt, no number of baths makes it pure, just as an impure toddy pot is not made pure though washed in water a hundred times. Wherever a person lives with the senses restrained, that very place is for him Kurukshetra, Prayāga and Pushkara. Then he names the tīrthas and kshetras of the earth, more than four hundred of them, beginning with Pushkara. Madhūvaṭa comes in the middle part of that list, after Pāṇikhāta and Miśraka, and before Manojava, Keśikī and Devaloka.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 25

The rite and its phala

The chapter gives one rite for all the tīrthas of its list. One who serves these tīrthas with śraddhā (faith), performs the bath and the other prescribed acts, keeps the fast, is master of the 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