Kauṇḍinya
Kauṇḍinya
Kauṇḍinya has other meanings too: see all meanings of Kauṇḍinya.
Kauṇḍinya was a ṛshi who set up his āśrama (hermitage) at or near the place where the rivers Hastimatī and Śābhramatī meet. This tīrtha (holy place) is known as the Saṅgameśvara. The Padma Purāṇa tells his story as part of the Saṅgameśvara māhātmya (account of a holy place’s greatness), within the longer account of the pilgrimage along the Śābhramatī.
The āśrama at the Saṅgameśvara
The Saṅgameśvara (lord of the confluence) is one of the holy places praised in the Śābhramatī māhātmya. Kauṇḍinya made his āśrama there. A river meeting is among the most powerful kinds of tīrtha in the Purāṇic account of the land.
The Padma Purāṇa records that the rivers flooded from time to time and the water covered his āśrama.
The śāpa on the Hastimatī
The floods came again and again, and Kauṇḍinya grew tired and angry. He laid a śāpa (a curse) on the river Hastimatī: it would run dry in the Kali Age (Kali Yuga).
The Padma Purāṇa gives Kali Yuga as the time when the śāpa takes effect. Kali is the age of decline, and the drying of holy rivers is one of its signs. The Hastimatī’s shrinking or vanishing in Kali Yuga is traced to this śāpa of Kauṇḍinya.
Sources
- Padma Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 145