Kāmarūpa
Kāmarūpa · kāma-rūpa, “the form of Kāma”
Kāmarūpa is a holy land, a deśa, named in the Vāmana Purāṇa. There Bhagavān Śiva abides as the Trinetra, the three-eyed one, together with Devī Umā, shining with the lustre of the moon, and there lies a Mahātīrtha, a great tīrtha (sacred bathing place), where Mahādeva is worshipped. The great bhāgavata Prahlāda came to Kāmarūpa on his tīrtha-yātrā (pilgrimage) and worshipped in both places.
The Vāmana Purāṇa also counts Kāmarūpa among the places on earth where Bhagavān Vishṇu abides. When the young Bhagavān Vāmana told Bharadvāja Ṛshi the places of his forms, he said: “At Kāmarūpa I am Śaśiprabha,” the moon-bright.
Prahlāda in Kāmarūpa
Pulastya Maharshi tells Nārada Maharshi of the tīrtha-yātrā of Prahlāda, son of the lord of the daityas, a bhāgavata who had mastered his senses. From Kanakhala he went to Girivraja and worshipped Paśupati, the lord of the worlds, and from there he went to the land of Kāmarūpa.
In Kāmarūpa he worshipped the Trinetra together with Umā, who shines with the lustre of the moon. Then he went to the Mahātīrtha and worshipped Mahādeva according to rule. From there he went on to the mountain Atriputra, shining with three peaks, where he had darśana of Cakrapāṇi, recited the Gajendra-mokshaṇa stava, and stayed three months living on bulbs, fruits and water.
At the close of the yātrā Pulastya says: “O Nārada, in this way I have told you the puṇya-giving account of the tīrtha-yātrā made by the mahābhāgavata Prahlāda. A man who sings it, hears it, or passes it on to others is freed from all pāpas.”
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 57
Bhagavān Vāmana as Śaśiprabha
Bhagavān Vāmana named the places of his forms one by one: at Śālavana he is Bhīma and Viśvāmitra, on Kailāsa Vṛshabhadhvaja, and at Kāmarūpa he is Śaśiprabha. All these places, he said, are eternal, ancient and holy; they give dharma, are full of tejas, destroy pāpa and are always to be praised. Devas, humans and sādhyas who see, touch, praise and remember these devatās attain all four purushārthas: dharma, artha, kāma and moksha. “This is certain.”
The same name is saluted in the second pāpa-śamana stotra, the stotra that quiets pāpa, which Pulastya Maharshi tells Nārada: namaskāra to Vṛshadhvaja, to Maheśvara, to Viśvāmitra and to Śaśiprabha. One who studies this stotra well is freed of all his pāpas.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 61, 63
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 57, 61, 63