Māyā (Muktakeśī)
Muktakeśī · mukta-keśī, “she whose tresses are loose”
Māyā has other meanings too: see all meanings of Māyā.
Māyā, known in bodily form even today as Muktakeśī, “she whose tresses are loose”, is the maiden whom Brahmā (Pitāmaha) brought forth by the power of Māyā to protect the satra yajña (a long yajña) of the seven ṛshis on the banks of the Gautamī. The Brahma Purāṇa calls her the great Māyā of Maheśvara. She is Ajā, the unborn, and Ekā, the one; she has a black form and a red form; she takes any form she wishes (kāmarūpiṇī), and she casts moha (delusion) over all the three worlds. Brahmā tells her account to Nārada Maharshi in the Gautamī Māhātmya, as part of the glory of the Cakratīrtha.
How Māyā came to the ṛshis
The seven ṛshis, with Vasishṭha Maharshi at their head, went to the banks of the Gautamī and began a satra yajña. There the rākshasas raised a terrible obstruction. The ṛshis came to Brahmā and told him all that the rākshasas had done.
Then Brahmā created, by means of Māyā, the form of a young maiden. “By the mere sight of her the rākshasas shall perish,” he said, and he gave the maiden to the ṛshis. At his word the ṛshis went back, taking Māyā with them.
By her power the ṛshis found peace of mind. They returned to the Gautamī, the excellent river, and took dīkshā (initiation) for the yajñas once again.
Māyā and the rākshasas
Again the rākshasas came to destroy the yajña. When the leading rākshasas saw Māyā near the yajña ground, they began to dance, to sing, to laugh and to cry.
Great was the power of the great Māyā of Maheśvara. But among the rākshasas stood Śambara, the valorous lord of the daityas, and he swallowed the maiden in the form of Māyā. All who had seen the power of Māyā were astonished.
As the yajña was being destroyed, the ṛshis took refuge in Bhagavān Vishṇu, and Bhagavān Vishṇu gave his cakra for their protection. The divine Sudarśana cakra cut down the daityas, the dānavas and the rākshasas in battle, and the leading rākshasas perished in fear of it. The ṛshis completed their great satra, and the Sudarśana cakra was washed in the waters of the Gaṅgā. From then on that place has been called the Cakratīrtha. One who bathes and gives dāna (gifts) there gains the fruit of a satra yajña; five hundred tīrthas there dispel pāpa (sin), and bathing and giving dāna in each of them gives moksha (liberation).
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 64
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 64