Bhānutīrtha (Mṛtasañjīvana)

Bhānutīrtha · bhānu-tīrtha, “the tīrtha of the Sun”

Bhānutīrtha has other meanings too: see all meanings of Bhānutīrtha.

Bhānutīrtha is a tīrtha on the bank of the Gautamī (the Gaṅgā), where Bhagavān Sūrya, the Sun, granted darśana and brought the dead back to life. It is also called Mṛtasañjīvana, “the one that revives the dead”, Śāryāta and Madhucchandas. Brahmā tells Nārada its account in the Gautamī Māhātmya of the Brahma Purāṇa. Here the virtuous King Śaryāti gave up his own life in the fire so that the wife of his purohita Madhucchandas might live, and Madhucchandas praised Sūrya until Sūrya restored the king. The tīrtha gives all powers and prosperity and destroys great pāpas (sins). Three thousand excellent tīrthas are there.

Śaryāti and his purohita

There was a king of great virtue named Śaryāti. His wife was Sthavishṭhā, unequalled in beauty in the whole world. His purohita was the brahmarshi Madhucchandas of the family of Viśvāmitra, a master of self-control.

With his purohita, the heroic king went out on digvijaya, the conquest of the quarters. When the quarters were conquered and the army was camped on the way home, the king saw that Madhucchandas was lean and downcast. He said: “In my kingdom you alone are worthy of honour by all. You know every branch of learning and you are free of pāpa. The whole world has been conquered. This is a time to rejoice. Why are you without happiness? Tell me the truth.”

Madhucchandas told him of the words he and his wife had spoken when they parted, and said: “My beloved is waiting for me. Remembering her words, my body is parched and dried up. When Kāma troubles the heart, the beloved alone is the medicine.” The king laughed and said: “You are my guru and my friend. Why do you deceive yourself? What attachment can noble men have for a pleasure that passes in a moment?” Madhucchandas answered: “Dharma, kāma and artha all grow when husband and wife live in harmony and care for each other. What is usually a fault may be counted an ornament there.”

The rumour and the king’s act of truth

The king returned to his own land. To test the love his purohita spoke of, he had a rumour spread through the city: “As King Śaryāti went on in his conquest, a great rākshasa killed him together with his purohita and went away to pātāla, the nether world.” The queens sent to ask whether it was true. But the wife of Madhucchandas, hearing the news from the messengers, died at once. It was a great wonder.

The messengers told the king what had happened. Astonished and grieved, he said: “Go quickly. Preserve the body of that brāhmaṇa lady, and let it be known that the king is coming with his guru.” As he stood troubled, a voice without a body spoke: “O king, Gaṅgā will fulfil your wish entirely. The Gautamī calms every torment on the earth. She is sacred.”

Śaryāti went to the bank of the Gautamī. He gave wealth to brāhmaṇas as dāna (gifts) and offered tarpaṇa (water offerings) to the pitṛs and the ṛshis. So that his purohita would not know what he meant to do, he sent Madhucchandas to another tīrtha with ample wealth, to give gifts to the people of the caravan. When the guru had gone, the king sent away his whole army, made a proclamation, and stood before a burning pyre on the bank of the Gaṅgā. He made an act of truth to Gaṅgā, to Bhagavān Sūrya and to the devas: “If I have given gifts, if I have performed homa, if I have protected my subjects, then by that truth, and by what remains of my life, let that chaste woman live again.” Saying this, he entered the fire. At that very moment the wife of the purohita came back to life.

Madhucchandas praises Sūrya

Madhucchandas heard all this and was filled with wonder: the king had entered the fire, his wife who had died had returned to life, and the king had given his own life for this very purpose. Then he remembered his own duty and thought: “Shall I too enter the fire? Shall I go back to my wife? Or shall I perform tapas (austerity) here?” He resolved: “This alone is my duty and a deed of puṇya (merit): first I shall bring the king back to life, and then go to my beloved wife.”

Then he praised Bhagavān Sūrya, for, Brahmā says, there is no deva other than Sūrya who grants every cherished desire. His stotra salutes Sūrya:

• who is moksha itself, of unmeasured splendour, one with the Vedas;
• the meaning of Oṃkāra;
• the one without form, and the one of splendid form;
• the one of the three guṇas and the three forms;
• the mighty one, the cause of creation, sustenance and dissolution.

Sūrya’s varas

Bhagavān Sūrya, delighted, appeared before him and said: “Choose your vara (boon).” Madhucchandas said: “O Deveśa, give me the king, and my wife of sweet speech. Give me splendid sons, and give the king excellent varas.” Sūrya, ruler of the universe, granted all of it: King Śaryāti was restored to life, Madhucchandas had his wife, and splendid varas were given. Everything was auspicious. The king went back to his kingdom with his delighted purohita and lived happily.

The names and the phala

From then on the tīrtha has been called Bhānutīrtha, the tīrtha of Bhānu, the Sun. It is also well known as Mṛtasañjīvana, as Śāryāta and as Madhucchandas. Three thousand excellent tīrthas are there.

• Bhānutīrtha gives men all powers and prosperity and destroys great pāpas.
• Remembered, it dispels pāpas.
• A holy bath (snāna) and dāna there give the fruit of all yajñas.
• It brings the dead back to life, and it increases long life and health.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 68

Sources

• Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 68