Aindra Tīrtha (Hariścandra’s Yajña)
Aindra Tīrtha, “the tīrtha of Indra”
Aindra has other meanings too: see all meanings of Aindra.
Aindra Tīrtha is a tīrtha on the southern bank of the Gautamī, the Godāvarī, one of the fifteen that Brahmā names among the twenty-two thousand tīrthas that arose from the naramedha of King Hariścandra. Brahmā tells Nārada its account in the Gautamī Māhātmya of the Brahma Purāṇa: how Hariścandra of the Ikshvāku line gained his son Rohita by the grace of Varuṇa on the bank of the Gautamī, how he promised the boy to Varuṇa and put off the yajña again and again, how Rohita bought the brāhmaṇa boy Śunaḥśepa from his father Ajīgarta, and how, at the word of a divine voice and through Viśvāmitra‘s plea, the devas let the yajña be completed on the Gautamī without killing Śunaḥśepa. A bath and dāna here give the fruit of a naramedha, and hearing its greatness gives a son to one who has none.
Hariścandra’s wish for a son
Brahmā tells Nārada the account. There was a king of the Ikshvāku vaṃśa named Hariścandra. The ṛshis Nārada and Parvata came to his palace, and he received them with great ātithya (hospitality). Then he asked them: “The whole world suffers for the sake of a son. What does one gain from a son, wise or foolish, excellent or middling?”
The two ṛshis answered that a thousand answers could be given, and all would be good. To a man without a son, they said, neither the next world nor this world is open. A man who bathes at the birth of his son gains the fruit of the closing bath (avabhṛtha) of ten aśvamedhas. What the devas gain through amṛta, men gain through a son. A son frees his father and grandfathers from the three debts (ṛṇa-traya). Of what use are roots and water, a long beard or tapas without a son? The son is dharma, kāma and artha; the son is moksha and the great light, who carries embodied beings across. Without a son a dāna or a yajña bears no fruit, and through him one is freed from the debt to the pitṛs. There is nothing in the three worlds as dear as a son.
Hariścandra resolved to gain a son by any means, by effort, japa, yajña or dāna. After meditating for a while the ṛshis told him: “Go to the Gautamī. There Varuṇa, master of the waters, praised by the ṛshis as the giver of everything, fulfils every wish. When he is pleased he will grant you a son.”
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 34
Varuṇa’s vara and the king’s promise
On the bank of the Gautamī the king worshipped Varuṇa, and Varuṇa, pleased, said: “I shall grant you a son, if you will offer him to me in a yajña.” Hariścandra said, “I shall offer him.” He prepared the caru (offering of cooked grain) of Varuṇa and gave it to his queen, and a son was born.
Varuṇa came at once: “Offer the son today. Do you remember your promise?” Each time the king put him off:
- “A paśu (the offering of a yajña) is fit only after ten days.” Varuṇa went home.
- After ten days: “A paśu without teeth is not fit. Come when his teeth have grown.” Varuṇa went.
- When the boy had his teeth and was seven years old: “These teeth will fall and others will come. Then I shall offer him.” Varuṇa went.
- When the new teeth had grown: “A kshatriya paśu is best when he knows dhanurveda (the science of the bow).” Varuṇa went to his abode.
The prince Rohita learned the divine astras, the Vedas and the śāstras, and at sixteen he was crowned yuvarāja (heir). Then Varuṇa came to the king and Rohita and said: “Offer your son.” The king said “Yes,” and told his eldest son Rohita and the ṛtvijas: “Come, my son. I shall offer you to Varuṇa.”
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 34
Rohita in the forest
When his father had told him everything, Rohita said, in Varuṇa‘s hearing: “First I shall perform a yajña to Bhagavān Vishṇu, master of the worlds, with the ṛtvijas and the purohita, with Varuṇa as the paśu. Give me leave.” Varuṇa was filled with great anger. Rohita took his divine bow, mounted his chariot and went to the forest on the bank of the Gaṅgā, the very place where his father had worshipped Varuṇa and gained a son. Varuṇa, in his anger, struck Hariścandra with dropsy.
Five years passed. In the sixth year Rohita heard of his father’s illness and thought: “I was born to my father, and I have become the cause of his pain. What is my duty now?” On the bank of the Gaṅgā he met the ṛshi Ajīgarta, who wandered there with his wife and three sons, thin and without food. Ajīgarta told him that he had no gold, silver, cows, grain or clothes, and that no one would buy any of the five of them for food. He offered one of his sons, himself or his wife. Rohita asked for a young son. Ajīgarta said: “I will not sell my eldest, Śunaḥpuccha, and the mother will not sell the youngest. I shall sell Śunaḥśepa, the middle one.” Rohita said that Varuṇa’s paśu must be a man of excellent qualities, and Ajīgarta asked as the price a thousand cows, grain, gold coins and clothes. Rohita gave the wealth and the clothes and brought the ṛshi’s son to his father: “Perform the yajña to Varuṇa with this paśu and be free of your illness.”
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 34
The king refuses, and a divine voice speaks
Hariścandra refused. The Vedas, he said, bid the king protect brāhmaṇas, kshatriyas and vaiśyas, and the brāhmaṇas above all. They are worthy of honour even from Vishṇu; they are one with the tīrthas and with the devas, and they save those about to fall into naraka. Kings who dishonour them lose their line. “It is better for me to die of this illness. I will never make a brāhmaṇa the paśu. Go happily with the brāhmaṇa boy, my son.”
Then an aśarīrī vāṇī (a voice from the sky, without a body) spoke: “O great king, go to the Gautamī with your ṛtvijas and purohitas, with Rohita and with this brāhmaṇa boy as the paśu. There you must perform the yajña without killing Śunaḥśepa, and there it will be complete.”
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 34
The naramedha on the Gautamī
The king hastened to the Gaṅgā with Viśvāmitra, his purohita Vasishṭha, the ṛshi Vāma and other ṛshis. On the Gautamī he took dīkshā (initiation) for the naramedha, the yajña in which a man is the paśu. He made the vedi (altar), the maṇḍapa (pavilion) and the kuṇḍa (fire pit), and set up the yūpa (post). The yajña began, and Śunaḥśepa was tied to the yūpa with mantras and sprinkled with water.
Then Viśvāmitra spoke to the devas, the ṛshis, Hariścandra and Rohita: “Free this Śunaḥśepa, the excellent brāhmaṇa boy. O devas, let him not be offered to you in the fire. Let the brāhmaṇas be sprinkled and go to bathe in the Gautamī; let them praise the devas one by one with mantras and stotras, and let the ṛshis and the devas who share the offerings protect this boy.” The ṛshis said, “So be it,” and the king agreed. Śunaḥśepa bathed in the Gaṅgā, purifier of the three worlds, and praised the devas who partake of the offerings.
The devas were delighted and said to Śunaḥśepa: “Let this yajña be complete without killing Śunaḥśepa.” Varuṇa himself said the same to the king. So, by the grace of the devas and of the ṛshis of the tīrtha, Hariścandra’s naramedha, famous in all the worlds, was completed.
In the midst of the assembly Viśvāmitra honoured Śunaḥśepa before the devas and made him the eldest of his own sons. Those of his sons who would not accept Śunaḥśepa as the eldest received a śāpa (a curse) from Viśvāmitra; those who accepted him he honoured and blessed with varas.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 34
The twenty-two thousand tīrthas
Brahmā tells Nārada that all these events took place on the southern bank of the Gautamī, and that many famous tīrthas arose there, praised by the devas. He names fifteen of them: Viśvāmitra, Hariścandra, Śunaḥśepa, Rohita, Vāruṇa, Brāhma, Āgneya, Aindra, Aindava, Aiśvara, Maitra, Vaishṇava, Yāmya, Āśvina and Auśana. In all there are twenty-two thousand tīrthas there.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 34
The rite and its phala
A bath (snāna) and the giving of dāna at these tīrthas give the fruit of a naramedha. Brahmā closes with the phalaśruti: whoever reads this greatness of the tīrtha, has it read, or listens to it with bhakti gains a son if he has none, and gains the other things his heart desires.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 34
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 34