Paiṭhīnasī

Paiṭhīnasī

Paiṭhīnasī was the wife of Bharadvāja, a ṛshi of great righteousness and fame, and the ornament of a noble family. A pativratā, she sat on the bank of the Gautamī and prepared the yajña offerings for Agni and Soma, and for Indra and Agni, at the yajña that gave Śuklatīrtha its name.

Brahmā tells Nārada the glory of Śuklatīrtha, “the white tīrtha”, whose mere remembrance fulfils every wish. While the puroḍāśa (the rice-cake offering) was cooking, a terrible rākshasa was born from the smoke, a terror to the three worlds, wishing to devour the offering. He named himself Havyaghna, the destroyer of offerings, the eldest son of Sandhyā and Prācīnabarhis, black like his father, his mother and his younger brother Kālī, and said that Brahmā had given him the vara to devour yajñas, and the śāpa from which he would be freed only when the ṛshis sprinkled him with amṛta. Bharadvāja made him a friend, and at his word sprinkled him, the yūpa (yajña post), the yajña animal and the vedi with the water of the Gaṅgā, the best of the four amṛtas. All of them became white in a moment. Bharadvāja completed his yajña and cast the yūpa into the Gaṅgā, where it stands even today, and the rākshasa declared that those who bathe, give dāna or offer pūjā there will gain their wishes and the fruit of that yajña.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 63

Sources

• Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 63