Mahānala (Liṅga)

Mahānala · mahā-anala, “the great fire”

Mahānala is the liṅga of Bhagavān Śiva installed by Mṛtyu on the bank of the Gautamī, at the place known ever since as Vaḍavā-saṅgama, where the river Vaḍavā meets the Gautamī. Brahmā tells Nārada that the fire Vaḍavā is known as Mahānala, that Bhagavān Śiva there is called Mahānala, and that the river is called Vaḍavā. The tīrtha removes death, old age and other defects.

How the liṅga came to be installed

Long ago the ṛshis of great tapas performed a yajña in the Naimisha forest and made Mṛtyu the śamitṛ, the one who slays the yajña animal. While Mṛtyu served the yajña, no moving or unmoving being died; apart from the yajña animals, all mortals became deathless. Svarga grew empty and the mortal world overcrowded, and the devas sent the rākshasas to destroy the yajña, promising them a share in its fruit.

The ṛshis took counsel with Mṛtyu. Leaving their āśrama and the vessels behind, they took only the sacred fire and hurried with Mṛtyu to the Gautamī. There they bathed and, with joined palms, praised Bhagavān Śiva. The ṛshis took refuge in Someśvara, who in play created the universe, the maker and ordainer of the three worlds, of cosmic form, beyond sat and asat. Mṛtyu took refuge in Śaṅkara, ruler of the devas, who creates, protects and destroys all by his will alone, of great strength and vast form, adorned with great serpents.

Bhagavān Śiva asked what they wished, and Mṛtyu asked him to protect the yajña from the rākshasas. The three-eyed Bhagavān Śiva, whose banner bears the bull, did so, and the yajña was completed with Mṛtyu as śamitṛ. When the devas came for their shares of the havis, the ṛshis and Mṛtyu declared that the rākshasas would be the enemies of the devas, and so they became. The devas and the ṛshis then crowned Vaḍavā, the kṛtyā (a being born of a rite for destruction), as the wife of Mṛtyu, and the holy water of that abhisheka became the river Vaḍavā. The liṅga installed by Mṛtyu is known as Mahānala, and from then on the tīrtha is known as Vaḍavā-saṅgama.

The phala

The tīrtha where Bhagavān Śiva is Mahānala gives bhukti (worldly enjoyment) and moksha. On the banks on either side there are a thousand tīrthas in all; they give all desired things, and by remembering them pāpas are washed away.

Sources

• Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 46