Brahmadatta of Śābhramatī

Brahmadatta was a king of the Solar dynasty (Sūryavaṃśa). The Padma Mahā Purāṇa records that he performed tapas (austerity) at the Brahmacārīśa tīrtha (sacred place) on the Śābhramatī river.

Brahmacārīśa is the Śivaliṅga set up at or near the place where the Śābhramatī flows in its classical course. It became linked with Brahmadatta through the long austerities he practised there. He sought moksha (liberation) through hard discipline.

The Solar dynasty and the tapas

Brahmadatta belongs to the Solar dynasty. This is the line of Manu and Ikshvāku, and in the end of Rāma. The Padma Purāṇa tells of his tapas at Brahmacārīśa on the Śābhramatī in Chapter 135 of the Uttara Khaṇḍa. The glory (māhātmya) of the Śābhramatī is told in Chapters 135 to 150 of the Uttara Khaṇḍa. It covers a series of kings who made the river’s banks holy by their austerities.

The Brahmacārīśa tīrtha

The name Brahmacārīśa means “the Śiva of the celibate”. It comes from brahmacarya (celibate discipline) as shown by Bhagavān Śiva himself. He is the supreme ascetic. He is both the householder and the eternal brahmacārin.

The setting up of this tīrtha is tied to the account of how the Śābhramatī began. The river received its power as a strand of the Gaṅgā from the ṛshi Kaśyapa. Kaśyapa received that strand from the matted hair (jaṭā) of Bhagavān Śiva. So the river’s power passes from the jaṭā of Bhagavān Śiva to Kaśyapa and then to the Śābhramatī. The Brahmacārīśa tīrtha is one of the main places of that power.

Sources

• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 135