Ileśvara
Ileśvara · ila-īśvara, “the lord of Ila”
Ileśvara, “the Īśvara of Ila“, is the name of Bhagavān Śiva (Śambhu) at Ilātīrtha on the bank of the Gautamī. Brahmā tells Nārada in the Gautamī Māhātmya of the Brahma Purāṇa that here, by the grace of Bhagavān Śiva and Devī Umā, King Ila of the line of Vivasvān, who had been turned into a woman, Ilā, became a man again with a single holy plunge. Ever since, Śambhu is called Ileśvara at this place, and sixteen thousand tīrthas arose on both banks of the river.
Why Śiva is called Ileśvara
Long ago, on Himavat, Devī Pārvatī asked Bhagavān Śiva for a guarded place of her own, to be known as Umāvana, where every male who entered, except Śiva himself, Gaṇeśa, Kārttikeya and Nandin, would become a woman. Śiva, who bears the moon on his crest, gave the command. King Ila, hunting on Himavat, took over the jewelled cave of the yaksha Samanyu and killed his yakshas; Samanyu’s wife Samā, in the form of a hind, drew the king into Umāvana, and he became Ilā. As Ilā he married Budha, the son of Soma, and bore Purūravas.
When Purūravas asked how his mother could regain her manhood, Budha said that the śāpa came from the command of Śambhu, and would be removed only by the grace of Śambhu and Umā, by pleasing them and in no other way. “Go to the Gautamī,” he said. “The glorious Śiva, who removes śāpas and grants varas, dwells there always together with Umā.”
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 38
The stotras and the vara
Purūravas, Ilā and Budha came from Himavat to the Gautamī, bathed and performed tapas for a short while, and praised Devī Gaurī and Bhagavān Śaṅkara. Budha took refuge in the two who delight in the tinkling of the girdle, who are the colour of pure gold, of beautiful form, worshipped by Skanda and Gaṇeśa. Ilā took refuge in Śaṅkarī and Śaṅkara, by meditating on whom beings scorched by the three kinds of affliction at once reach the highest bliss, and in the supremely holy feet of Bhagavān Śiva. Purūravas took refuge in Gaurī and Hara, the inner self of the universe, from whom the whole universe arises, in whom it flourishes and into whom it merges, and in the feet of the daughter of the mountain king, which Śiva held with love at the devas’ request in a great festival.
The Devī asked what they wished, and Purūravas asked her to forgive King Ila, who had entered her forest unknowingly, and to give him back his manhood. The Devī, who acts by the wish of Bhava, said “So be it”, and Bhagavān Śiva, ever devoted to the words of the Devī, declared: “Let this king regain his manhood merely by taking a holy plunge here.” As Ilā bathed, the dance, song and grace she had learned from the yakshiṇī flowed out of her body and became the rivers Nṛtyā, Gītā and Saubhāgyā, which joined the Gaṅgā. Ila, a man again, performed the Vājapeya yajña, founded a city named after himself in Daṇḍaka, crowned his earlier sons and consecrated Purūravas as the founder of the Candravaṃśa.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 38
Ileśvara and the sixteen thousand tīrthas
Sixteen thousand tīrthas arose on both banks of the Gautamī: where King Ila performed his yajñas, where he met his sons after regaining his manhood, and where the rivers born of dance, song, good fortune and auspiciousness joined the Gaṅgā. “O dear one,” Brahmā tells Nārada, “Śambhu is called Ileśvara here.”
The Purāṇa says that Ilātīrtha gives men siddhi (spiritual attainment), purifies even those who have committed brahmahatyā and the other grave pāpas, and grants every cherished wish. A holy bath and dāna at the three confluences give the kingdom of the devas, and a holy bath, dāna and the like in the sixteen thousand tīrthas give the reward of all yajñas.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 38
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 38