Koṭīśvara
Koṭīśvara · koṭi-īśvara, “the Īśvara of the crore”
Koṭīśvara, “the Īśvara of the crore”, is the deity of Koṭitīrtha, the tīrtha on the southern bank of the Gaṅgā Gautamī. Brahmā tells Nārada that merely by remembering Koṭitīrtha one is rid of all pāpas; that everything done there has a crore-fold merit; that the deity there is Koṭīśvara; and that there are two crores of tīrthas there that give auspiciousness.
How Koṭitīrtha came to be
Bāhlika, the eldest son of Kaṇva, was honoured by all the worlds by the name Kāṇva. A master of the Vedas and Vedāṅgas, he lived on the banks of the Gautamī and performed yajñas with his wife, and every morning he offered homa in the sacred fire with great purity of mind. Once, after he had poured one ladleful of ghee into the fire and taken the havis in his hand for the second āhuti, the fire went out. Kāṇva did not know whether to take up a Vedic fire or a worldly one.
Then a divine voice spoke: “O great brāhmaṇa, you need not fetch another fire. There are small sparks nearby; offer the homa in the half-burnt twigs.” When Kāṇva refused, the voice spoke again: father and son are the same; what is given to the son is for the father’s pleasure, and the embers, the son of Agni, are one with Agni. Such an offering would have a crore times more merit. The ṛshis took this as the whole of dharma and did as the voice said. The voice declared that by the power of Kāṇva’s puṇya a great tīrtha had arisen at this spot, greater in fruit than any other in the three worlds.
Its names and its phala
Because every bath and dāna done there gives a crore times the usual fruit, the place is called Koṭitīrtha, “the tīrtha of the crore”. It is also called Āgneya, Kāṇva, Pautra and Hiraṇyaka. Not even Vācaspati and the devas can tell its greatness. Whatever rite is done there gives a crore times the fruit, by the grace of the Godāvarī. One who gives a single cow to an excellent brāhmaṇa there gains the fruit of giving a crore cows, and land given there with a faithful mind bears fruit a crore times over. Offerings to the pitṛs are excellent everywhere on the banks of the Gautamī, and at Koṭitīrtha they have endless fruit. The ṛshis know forty-nine tīrthas at this place.
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 78