Hariścandra Tīrtha
Hariścandra Tīrtha · hari-candra tīrtha, “the tīrtha of Hariścandra”
Hariścandra Tīrtha is a tīrtha on the southern bank of the Gautamī, the Godāvarī, named after King Hariścandra of the Ikshvāku line. Here, on the Gautamī, Hariścandra had received his son Rohita from Varuṇa, and here his naramedha (a yajña with a man as the offering) was completed by the grace of the devas and ṛshis without the boy Śunaḥśepa being slain. Brahmā tells Nārada the account in the Gautamī Māhātmya of the Brahma Purāṇa. Hariścandra Tīrtha is the first named of the twenty-two thousand tīrthas that arose there, among them the Śunaḥśepa, Viśvāmitra and Rohita tīrthas. A bath and dāna there give the fruit of a naramedha, and whoever reads or hears the account with devotion gains a son if he has none.
The tīrthas of this chapter
Brahmā begins by naming fifteen tīrthas: Viśvāmitra, Hariścandra, Śunaḥśepa, Rohita, Vāruṇa, Brāhma, Āgneya, Aindra, Aindava, Aiśvara, Maitra, Vaishṇava, Yāmya, Āśvina and Auśana.
Hariścandra asks for a son
The ṛshis Nārada and Parvata came to the abode of King Hariścandra, and he received them with great hospitality. He asked them: “The whole world suffers for the sake of a son. What does one gain from a son?” They answered that for a man without a son neither this world nor the other world exists; a man who bathes at the birth of his son gains the fruit of the closing bath of ten aśvamedhas; what the devas gain by amṛta, men gain by a son; a son frees his father and grandfathers from the three debts; without a son, tapas, dāna and yajña bear no fruit, and svarga and moksha are hard to reach. “There is nothing in the three worlds as desirable as a son.”
Hariścandra asked how he might gain one, by effort, japa, yajña or dāna. After deep thought the ṛshis said: “Go to the Gautamī. There Varuṇa, ruler of the waters, fulfils every wish held in the mind. When he is pleased he will grant you a son.”
Varuṇa’s vara and the king’s promise
On the banks of the Gautamī the king worshipped Varuṇa, and Varuṇa, pleased, said: “I shall grant you a son, if you are ready to offer him in yajña.” Hariścandra said: “I shall offer him.” He prepared Varuṇa’s caru (offering of cooked grain) and gave it to his wife, and a son was born. At once Varuṇa came: “Offer the son today. Do you remember your promise?”
The king put him off again and again:
- “A yajña animal becomes fit after ten days.” Varuṇa went home.
- After ten days: “A yajña animal without teeth is useless. Come when he cuts his teeth.”
- When the teeth had come and the boy was seven years old: “These teeth will fall and others will come. Then I shall perform the yajña.”
- When the new teeth had grown: “A kshatriya is the best yajña animal when he knows the science of archery.”
When Rohita had mastered the divine astras, the Vedas and the śāstras, and at sixteen had been crowned yuvarāja (heir), Varuṇa came again: “Offer your son.” The king agreed and called Rohita: “Come, my son, I shall offer you to Varuṇa.” Rohita heard everything and said, in Varuṇa’s hearing: “First I shall perform a yajña to Bhagavān Vishṇu, ruler of the worlds, with Varuṇa as the yajña animal.” Varuṇa was overcome with anger. Rohita took up his divine bow, mounted his chariot and went to the forest on the banks of the Gaṅgā, the very place where his father had worshipped Varuṇa. Varuṇa afflicted the king with dropsy.
Rohita and Ajīgarta
Five years passed, and in the sixth Rohita heard of his father’s illness. “I have been the cause of my father’s distress,” he thought. On the bank of the Gaṅgā he met the ṛshi Ajīgarta, wandering with his wife and three sons, with no means of living. Ajīgarta said: “I have no gold, silver, cows or grain. Take one of my three sons, or me, or my wife, so that we may live.” 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 a yajña animal of high qualities was needed for Varuṇa, and Ajīgarta set the price: a thousand cows, grain, gold coins and clothes. Rohita paid it and brought the ṛshi’s son to his father: “Perform the yajña to Varuṇa with him, and be free of your illness.”
Hariścandra refused. “The Vedas say the king must protect brāhmaṇas, kshatriyas and vaiśyas, and the brāhmaṇas above all. They are worthy of honour even from Bhagavān Vishṇu; kings who slight them destroy their own family. Brāhmaṇas are one with the tīrthas and the devas, and save those about to fall into naraka. It is better to die of illness than to make a brāhmaṇa the yajña animal. Go happily with the brāhmaṇa boy, my son.”
The yajña on the Gautamī
Then an aśarīrī vāṇī, a voice from the sky, said: “O great king, go to the Gautamī with your ṛtvijas, your purohitas, this brāhmaṇa’s son and Rohita. Perform the yajña there without killing Śunaḥśepa, and it shall be complete.” 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, prepared the vedi (altar), the maṇḍapa (pavilion) and the kuṇḍa (fire-pit), and set up the yūpa (post). Śunaḥśepa was bound 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 go to the Gautamī and bathe, praise the devas one by one with mantras and stotras, and let the ṛshis and devas 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 receive the offerings. The devas, delighted, said: “Let this yajña be complete without killing Śunaḥśepa,” and Varuṇa himself said so to the king. So Hariścandra’s naramedha, known in all the worlds, was completed by the grace of the devas and the ṛshis of the tīrtha.
Viśvāmitra honoured Śunaḥśepa before the assembly and the devas and made him the eldest of his sons. Those of his sons who would not accept Śunaḥśepa as eldest received his śāpa; those who accepted him he honoured with varas.
The tīrthas and their phala
Brahmā says that all these events happened on the southern bank of the Gautamī, and many famous tīrthas arose there, praised by the devas: Hariścandra, Śunaḥśepa, Viśvāmitra, Rohita and others, twenty-two thousand tīrthas in all.
- A bath and the giving of dāna (gifts) there give the fruit of a naramedha.
- Whoever reads this, has it read, or listens to it with bhakti (devotion) gains a son if he has none, and other things dear to his heart.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 34
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 34