Vṛddha-Gautama and the Old Woman (Vṛddhasaṅgama)
Vṛddha-saṅgama · vṛddhā-saṅgama, “the confluence of the old woman’s river”
Vṛddhā has other meanings too: see all meanings of Vṛddhā.
Vṛddha-gautama and the old woman is the account, in the Gautamī Māhātmya of the Brahma Purāṇa, of how the tīrtha Vṛddha-saṅgama on the Gautamī came to be, where Bhagavān Śiva is called Vṛddheśvara. Brahmā tells it to Nārada. A ṛshi of the family of Gautama was born without a nose; shy and without a guru, he kept only the agnihotra and the Gāyatrī, lived a thousand years and never found a wife. Wandering among the tīrthas, he came to a cave in the Himālaya where an old virgin, the daughter of King Ṛtadhvaja and the gandharva maiden Suśyāmā, was performing tapas, waiting for the one man who would enter her cave. She made him handsome and learned through Agni and Devī Sarasvatī, and they married and lived happily in the cave. When young disciples of visiting ṛshis mocked the old wife and her youthful husband, the couple, ashamed, asked Agastya where happiness could be found, and he sent them to the Gautamī. There Gautama performed tapas and praised Bhagavān Śiva, Śrī Kṛshṇa and the Gautamī, and the Gautamī told them to pour her consecrated water over each other. Both became beautiful; the water became the river Vṛddhā, he was called Vṛddha-gautama, and their confluence with the Gautamī became Vṛddha-saṅgama, where bathing and dāna grant every wish.
The noseless ṛshi
Brahmā said: “The tīrtha where Bhagavān Śiva is called Vṛddheśvara is named Vṛddha-saṅgama. I shall describe it in detail; listen. It destroys pāpa.”
There was a ṛshi of the family of Gautama named Vṛddha, a ṛshi of great tapas. When this brāhmaṇa was a boy, the son of Gautama, he had no nose; born without a nose, he was ugly in form. Free of worldly attachment, he wandered to many tīrthas. Because he was shy and modest he had no contact with any guru, and because he was bashful he had no chance to study with other pupils. With great difficulty his father Gautama initiated him into the study of the Vedas, and then the father set out on a journey.
Much time passed, and the boy was supported by his brāhmaṇa mother. He had no chance to study the Vedas and took up no regular study of any śāstra, but he kept his vratas regularly and performed the agnihotra. He was a brāhmaṇa by the Gāyatrī and the fire rites alone, and with this much he kept his brāhmaṇa-hood, offering in the fire and repeating the Gāyatrī mantra. His span of life grew long, but no one gave him a daughter in marriage. He wandered among the tīrthas of many lands, in forests and in holy āśramas.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 37
The old woman in the cave
In his wanderings Gautama came to the Himālaya. There he saw a beautiful cave, overgrown with creepers and branches, and he sat down there and decided to stay. Going inside, he saw an excellent woman: a lean old woman with slack limbs, a virgin keeping brahmacarya and performing tapas, living alone. Seeing her, the ṛshi made ready to bow to her, but she stopped him.
The old woman said: “You are about to become my guru. It does not befit you to salute me. A person’s long life, learning, wealth, fame, dharma, svarga and the rest perish if a guru bows to his disciple.”
Gautama, surprised, said with joined palms: “You are a holy lady, greater than I in good qualities. I am younger, with less knowledge and learning. How can I be your guru?”
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 37
The old woman’s birth
The old woman said: “Listen to what happened long ago. The son of Arustishena was known as Ṛtadhvaja, a meritorious, intelligent and heroic kshatriya devoted to the dharma of kshatriyas. Once, drawn by a wish to hunt, he came with a great army to a forest and rested in this very cave. As he rested, Suśyāmā, the daughter of the king of the gandharvas, saw him. The king was drawn to her and she to him, and they united. When his desire was fulfilled, the king took leave of her and went home.
“I was born of that Suśyāmā. As she was about to go back to svarga, my mother said to me: ‘Gentle girl, he who enters this cave will become your husband.’ Then my mother departed. You are the only man who has entered this cave; no one else ever has. My father ruled his kingdom for eighty thousand years, performed tapas and went to svarga. After him my brother ruled the kingdom for ten thousand years and died. But I remained here. No one has ever sought me in marriage. I have neither father nor mother; I am mistress of myself, a kshatriya girl, waiting ready for you. So accept me, who have kept holy vows and sought a husband.”
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 37
Gautama’s refusal and the gift of beauty and learning
Gautama said: “Gentle lady, I am a thousand years old, and you are older than I. I am a boy and you are an old lady; our union is impossible.”
The old woman said: “You were pointed out long ago as my husband, and I accept no other. Brahmā has given you to me; it does not befit you to reject me. If you do not want me, though I am pure and always ready to follow you, I shall give up my life now, before you. For embodied beings, death is far better than not obtaining what is desired, and there is no end to the pāpa of one who abandons those who are devoted to him.”
Gautama said: “I am without tapas and without good learning. I am poor and own nothing; I am deformed and have no nose. I am not a fit bridegroom for you. So first, splendid lady, make me handsome and give me learning; afterwards do as you have said.”
The old woman said: “By my tapas I have pleased Devī Sarasvatī, and the Waters of beautiful form, and Agni, the giver of beauty. Devī Vāk, Sarasvatī, will grant you learning, and Agni, the beautiful deva, will grant you a lovely form.” So she propitiated Agni and made Gautama handsome and learned. Then Gautama, learned, handsome and radiant, married the old woman, and with great joy he lived with her for many years in the cave, happy at heart.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 37
The mockery of the young disciples
While the couple lived happily in their cave, the ṛshis Vasishṭha, Vāmadeva and others, wandering over the holy tīrthas, came to it. Gautama and his wife welcomed them with great hospitality. But some of the party, boys proud of their youth and some men of middle age, saw the old woman and Gautama and laughed. They saw her lean and lanky, with hair on her body, her lips hanging, her ears broad like a winnowing basket, her teeth, nose and hair all too long, her body infirm and decaying; and they saw Gautama full of learning, good fortune, radiance and beauty. Seeing the difference, the narrow-minded disciples laughed and said:
“Is this your son or your grandson, old lady? Who is this Gautama? Tell us the truth.” And, in words that sounded like praise, they went on: “Truly the fruit of tapas is powerful. You alone are the blessed, fortunate lady in this world. Your pāpas have been burnt by your tapas; you have grown lean by tapas and mastery of the senses, by honouring guests and by raising your son. Compassion, dāna, tapas, truth, purity, hospitality, calm and the protection of sons: by all these you keep your dharma. One whose acts are only for filling his belly is fit for naraka. Tell us, who is the woman who endures every misery, the woman equal to a dog in misery? A woman, even with lovely brows, is thought impure if she has neither husband nor sons. Though very old and without a husband, you are still virtuous; though deformed, you must be thought beautiful; though without wealth, you are rich. You have done the hardest tapas, standing on one toe. In your former birth you worshipped Lakshmīpati with devotion, gave good dāna and performed yajñas with good dakshiṇā, visited the tīrthas and gave many gifts, and so you have obtained Gautama, who knows the Vedas and Vedāṅgas and all the śāstras, as your son, a son hard to obtain even by the puṇya of the three worlds. Is he your great-grandson, grandson or son, or your daughter’s son? Through this boy you will reach Vishṇuloka, or a pure family in your next birth.”
Some of the disciples said in wonder: “A young woman is poison to an old man, but a young man is like amṛta to an old woman. After a long time we have seen this union of the desirable and the undesirable.” So they spoke while the couple listened, and having received due hospitality, the great ṛshis went away.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 37
Agastya’s counsel
Hearing the talk of the ṛshis, the couple were ashamed and grieved. The wise Gautama, with his wife, asked the great ṛshi Agastya: “What land or tīrtha is there where happiness may be had? What place gives worldly enjoyment and moksha? Tell me quickly.”
Agastya said: “I have heard it from the ṛshis: all desires are fulfilled at the river Gautamī. Go to the Gautamī, the destroyer of pāpa. I shall follow you.”
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 37
Gautama’s stotra at the Gautamī
Gautama and the old woman went to the Gautamī. There the holy ṛshi performed tapas with his wife. He praised Bhagavān Vishṇu and Śambhu, and he propitiated Gaṅgā on behalf of his wife:
- “O Śiva, with your consort you are the one refuge of the distressed in this world, like a tree to travellers in the desert.”
- “O Kṛshṇa, you wholly remove the pāpas of all beings, high and low; you are like the rain-cloud to plants that wither in drought.”
- “O Gautamī, you are the ladder to the fort of Vaikuṇṭha, which is hard to reach. You are the river of amṛta; be the refuge of the seven that lie beneath.”
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 37
The Gautamī’s grace and the river Vṛddhā
Then the Gautamī, the refuge of all, was delighted and spoke to Gautama, who with the old woman had taken refuge in her: “Consecrate my water with mantras and pour it over your beloved wife, from pots sanctified with mantras and acts of pūjā. She will become beautiful, all her limbs made youthful; she will have marital happiness, enchanting eyes and every good mark. Then let your beautiful wife pour the water over you, and you too will have every good mark in full and a beautiful form.”
They said “Yes” and did as she told them, and by the grace of the Gautamī both gained beautiful forms. The water used for the bathing became a river and became famous by the name of the old woman: Vṛddhā-nadī, the river of the old woman. Likewise the ṛshis living with them called Gautama Vṛddha-gautama.
Then Vṛddhā, the old woman, spoke to Gautamī Gaṅgā, who stood before her in visible form: “Devī, let this river be called Vṛddhā after my name, and let its confluence with you be an excellent tīrtha. By bathing, dāna, homa and the rest there, let it increase beauty, good fortune, wealth, sons and grandsons; let it give long life, health and welfare, victory and joy; let it sanctify the pitṛs.” “Let it be so,” said Gaṅgā to the beloved wife of Gautama. The great ṛshi attained great joy there with the old woman.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 37
The tīrtha and its phala
The liṅga installed by Gautama is glorified by the name Vṛddha, Vṛddheśvara. From then on the tīrtha is called Vṛddha-saṅgama. Bathing and dāna there grant every desired thing, and by the Gautamī‘s word, bathing, dāna and homa at the confluence increase beauty, good fortune, wealth and offspring, give long life, health, victory and joy, and sanctify the pitṛs.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 37
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 37