Mahāpura
Mahāpura · mahā-pura, “the great city”
Mahāpura is the city of a king named Mahārāja, told of in the Brahma Purāṇa. There the vaiśya Maṇikuṇḍala, carrying a healing twig from Cakshustīrtha on the Gautamī, restored the sight of the king’s blind daughter, and the king gave him his daughter and his kingdom. Brahmā tells the account to Nārada in the glory of Cakshustīrtha.
Maṇikuṇḍala comes to Mahāpura
Maṇikuṇḍala, a rich vaiśya devoted to dharma, had lost his wealth, his hands and his eyes to his false friend, the brāhmaṇa Gautama, in three wagers on whether dharma or adharma is stronger in the world, and had been left on the southern bank of the Gautamī before Yogeśvara. There Vaibhīshaṇi, the son of Vibhīshaṇa, laid on his heart a twig from the tree where the herb Viśalyakaraṇī had fallen, and he regained his form, with hands and eyes. Keeping the twig, he bathed in the Gautamī, bowed to Hari, Yogeśvara, and wandered over many lands.
So he came to Mahāpura. Its very powerful king, Mahārāja, had no son; his only child was a daughter, and she was blind, and the king regarded her as his son. He had vowed that whoever restored her sight would receive her in marriage, together with the kingdom, whether deva or dānava, brāhmaṇa, kshatriya, vaiśya or śūdra, with merit or without. The proclamation was made day and night.
Maṇikuṇḍala heard it and said that he would surely restore the princess’s sight. The officers brought him before the king, and by the mere touch of the twig the princess saw. The wonder-struck king asked who he was, and Maṇikuṇḍala told him all that had happened. “I have this power by the grace of the brāhmaṇas, by dharma, by tapas, by the yajñas I performed with plentiful dakshiṇā, by dāna and by the divine herbs,” he said. The king thought, “Surely he is a deva; who else could have such power?”, and gave him his daughter and the kingdom.
The king remembers his friend
Maṇikuṇḍala ruled as king, but he found no joy in the kingdom without his friend, and he began to think of that same brāhmaṇa; for the minds of the noble always melt with pity, the Purāṇa says, even towards those who meant them harm. Going out to the forest, he saw Gautama, whose riches had all been taken by wicked gamblers. He took him home, honoured him duly, taught him the power of righteous deeds and had him bathe in the Gaṅgā to remove his pāpas. Then the two friends and their kinsmen, among whom Vṛddhakauśika was chief, performed yajñas near Yogeśvara, worshipped the devas and went to svarga.
From then on the tīrtha is known as Mṛtasañjīvana, Cakshustīrtha and Yogeśa. Even remembering it gives puṇya; it delights the mind and destroys all miseries.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 100
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 100