Śaṅkhinī (Tīrtha)
Śaṅkhinī · śaṅkhinī, “she of the conch”
Prāṇa has other meanings too: see all meanings of Prāṇa.
Śaṅkhinī is a holy tīrtha named in Chapter 25 of the Brahma Purāṇa, the Sarva-tīrtha-māhātmya, “the glory of all the tīrthas”, in its great list of the tīrthas and kshetras of the earth. The Purāṇa gives it by name only, with no word on where it lies, how it came by its name or who dwells there. Like every tīrtha of that list, it is served with a bath, a fast of three nights and tarpaṇa (water offerings) to the devas, ṛshis and pitṛs, and the one who serves it so gains the fruit of the aśvamedha yajña.
In the list of tīrthas
The brāhmaṇas asked the teller, “O knower of dharma, we wish to hear how many tīrthas and kshetras of puṇya there are on the earth. Tell us.” Before naming them, he spoke 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 in tīrthas makes it pure, just as an unclean toddy pot is not made pure though washed a hundred times. Tīrthas, dānas, vratas and āśramas cannot purify one of bad nature, a hypocrite whose senses roam unchecked. Wherever a person lives with the senses restrained, that very place is for him Kurukshetra, Prayāga and Pushkara.
Then he named the tīrthas and kshetras of the earth, more than four hundred of them, beginning with Pushkara. Śaṅkhinī comes in the middle part of that list, after Kapilā-tīrtha and Sūrya and before Gobhavana and Yaksharāja.
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 the senses, offers tarpaṇa 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