Ilātīrtha

Ilātīrtha · ilā-tīrtha, “the tīrtha of Ila”

Ilātīrtha is a tīrtha on the Gautamī, the Godāvarī, where King Ila of the solar line, who had been turned into the woman Ilā, bathed and became a man again by the grace of Devī Gaurī and Bhagavān Śiva. Around it lie the sixteen thousand tīrthas of Ila, on both banks of the river: where Ila performed his yajñas, where he met his sons after regaining manhood, and where three rivers born from Ilā’s body, the Nṛtyā, the Gītā and the Saubhāgyā, joined the Gaṅgā. Bhagavān Śambhu is worshipped there as Ileśvara, “the Īśvara of Ila”. Brahmā tells Nārada its account in the Gautamī Māhātmya of the Brahma Purāṇa. Ilātīrtha brings siddhi (spiritual attainment) to men, purifies even those guilty of brahmahatyā (the slaying of a brāhmaṇa) and other grave pāpas, and grants every cherished wish.

King Ila in the cave of the Yaksha

There was a king named Ila, born in the family of Vivasvān, Sūrya. He went to the hunting forest with a great army, a forest full of beasts and birds of every kind, and resolved to stay there. He told his ministers: “Go to the city, which my son protects, and look after the land, the treasury, the army and the prince. Let Vasishṭha go too. I shall stay in the forest, keeping my sacred fires, with a few horses, elephants and men skilled in the hunt.”

They went, and Ila went slowly to the Himālaya. There he saw a cave wonderfully set with jewels. It was the home of a Yaksha lord named Samanyu, who lived there with his wife Samā, devoted to her husband. The Yaksha roamed his forest at will with his wife, dancing and singing, in the form of a deer, and knew all that happened there; but Ila did not know the cave was the Yaksha’s. The king took it for himself.

The Yaksha was furious. He thought: “I cannot defeat Ila, and if I ask, he will not give my home back.” He sent his bow-bearing Yakshas: “Defeat King Ila, who is proud of his elephants, and make him leave my home.” The Yakshas told Ila to leave or be driven out. Ila fought them in anger, killed them and stayed there ten nights. Robbed of his home and his servants, the Yaksha lived in the forest in the form of a deer with his wife, who had the form of a doe.

Samā’s plan

The Yaksha asked his wife how such a king, strong, proud and given to hunting, could be conquered. Samā asked what she could do. He said: “Take the form of a hind, show yourself to Ila, and draw him into the forest called Umāvana. There he will become a woman. Kingdoms perish through the growth of pāpa and the indulgence of vices. I cannot go there, for I am a man; you are a woman and a Yakshiṇī.”

When she asked why he could not go, the Yaksha told her how Umāvana came to be. Bhagavān Śiva once roamed the Himālaya with Umā, followed by the devas and his gaṇas. When Śaṅkara stood alone in a secluded place, Devī Pārvatī said to him: “O Deveśa, give me a place, well guarded at your command, to be known as Umāvana. Except for you, Gaṇeśa, Kārtikeya and Nandin, whoever enters it shall become a woman.” Bhagavān Candraśekhara, delighted, gave the command. “What will a man not do when his beloved asks him?” said the Yaksha. “So I should not go to Umāvana.”

Ila becomes Ilā

Samā, who could take any form at will, became a hind and appeared before Ila. The king, given to the hunt, set out alone on his horse after her. Now hidden, now showing herself, now standing, now running as if afraid, she drew him on until he reached Umāvana. Then she gave up the form of the hind and took a divine form, standing beside an aśoka tree with one hand on its branch, anointed with divine fragrance.

As the tired king searched for the hind, she smiled and said: “O young maiden, O Ilā, where are you going alone on a horse, dressed like a man?” Hearing himself called Ilā, the king rebuked her; again she called him Ilā, and he, who had conquered the three worlds, raised his bow at her. “O Ilā, look at yourself,” she said, “and tell me whether I speak the truth.” The king looked and saw that he had become a woman, and was bewildered. “What has happened to me? Who are you?” Ilā asked.

Samā said: “My husband is Samanyu, lord of the Yakshas, whose cave you took and whose Yakshas you killed without a formal fight. To draw you out I took the form of a hind and entered Umāvana, and you followed. Long ago Maheśvara declared: ‘The man who enters this place unknowing will become a woman.’ Do not grieve; even the wise cannot know what is hidden in the future.” The king fell from his horse. Samā comforted Ilā: “You have become a woman for good. Do not strive for manhood. Learn the arts that befit a woman: grace, elegance, playful ways and all a woman’s pursuits.”

Budha and the birth of Purūravas

When Ilā had mastered those arts, she asked: “Who will be my husband? What is my duty? How can manhood be regained?” Samā answered: “To the east of this forest is the āśrama of Budha, son of Soma, a youth of great beauty. By this path he goes every day to pay his respects to his father Soma. Show yourself to him, and your wishes will be fulfilled.” Then Samā vanished and told her husband, who was glad.

Ila‘s army went away, and Ilā stayed in Umāvana, singing and dancing and pondering the ways of karma. One day Budha saw her dancing as he went to his father, and said: “Be my wife.” Ilā accepted with devotion, remembering the Yakshiṇī’s words, and lived happily with him. After a long time Budha asked what she wished for, and she said: “Give me a son.” Budha said: “My seed is unfailing. You will have a son, a kshatriya famous in the world, the founder of the Candravaṃśa, the lunar line: like Sūrya in brilliance, like Bṛhaspati in wisdom, like the Earth in patience, like a lion in battle, and like Agni in fury.”

At the birth of Budha’s son there were cries of “Victory!” in the abode of the devas. The great devas came, and Brahmā too came with great joy. The child gave a loud cry at birth, so the ṛshis and devas named him Purūravas, from purū, “loud”, and rava, “cry”. Budha taught him the arts of a kshatriya and the science of archery, and he grew like the waxing moon. He is also called Aila, the son of Ilā.

Purūravas asks his mother

One day Purūravas saw his mother in sorrow, bowed, and asked why, when her husband and son were all she could wish. Ilā said: “It is a secret, but a son is the last refuge of his parents, a ship for those sinking in the ocean of sorrow.” Purūravas placed her feet on his head and said with tears: “If a son does not remove his parents’ trouble, his birth is in vain. Tīrthas, dāna, yajña and tapas bring puṇya only to one who has pleased his parents. Tell me everything.”

Ilā told him all: her birth as a man in the Ikshvāku line of the solar dynasty, her name, her sons and wife, her purohita Vasishṭha, the kingdom, the hunt, the cave of the Yaksha, Umāvana and Maheśvara’s command, and her meeting with Budha. “I wish to regain manhood and my kingdom, to see my sons crowned, especially you, and to give dāna, perform yajña and walk the path of moksha, by your grace.”

Purūravas asked his father Budha the way. Budha said: “I know how Ila entered Umāvana, and I know the command of Śambhu. The śāpa will end only by the grace of Śambhu and Umā, by pleasing them, and not otherwise. Go to the Gautamī. Bhagavān Śiva, who removes śāpas and grants varas, dwells there always with Umā.”

The three stotras

Purūravas bowed to the Himālaya, to his mother, his father and his guru, and went to the Gautamī-Gaṅgā, which purifies the three worlds, and Ilā and Budha followed him. They bathed, performed tapas for a short while, and praised Devī Gaurī and Bhagavān Śaṅkara, first Budha, then Ilā, then Purūravas.

• Budha: “Let those two be my refuge, who delight in the tinkling of the jewelled girdle, who are the colour of pure gold, beautiful of form, worshipped by Skanda and Gaṇeśvara.”
• Ilā: “Let Śaṅkarī and Śaṅkara be my refuge. Beings scorched by the forest fire of the three afflictions reach the highest bliss at once by meditating on them. I am distressed; there is no one but you to protect me. Your feet are supremely holy; let them be my refuge.”
• Purūravas: “Gaurī and Hara are the refuge of the whole universe and its indwelling self; from them it arises, in them it thrives, into them it returns. At a great festival the devas said, ‘O Īśa, take the feet of the daughter of the lord of mountains,’ and Bhagavān Śiva held them lovingly. Let those two feet be my refuge.”

Manhood restored

The great Devī Gaurī said: “What do you wish for? You have done what is hard even for the devas. Be content.” Purūravas said: “O Ambikā, King Ila entered your forest unknowing. Forgive him and grant him manhood.” Devī Gaurī, who abides by the wish of Bhava, said “So be it”, and Bhagavān Śiva, ever devoted to her words, said: “Let this king regain his manhood merely by taking a holy plunge here.”

As Ilā took her holy dip, water flowed from her body. All she had received from the Yakshiṇī, dance, song, graceful charm and the rest, entered the Gaṅgā with that flow, and three rivers came forth: the Nṛtyā (Dance), the Gītā (Song) and the Saubhāgyā (Conjugal felicity). They too joined the Gaṅgā, and the three confluences are very holy.

Ila’s kingdom and the crowning of Aila

Having regained his manhood by the grace of Gaurī and Śambhu, Ila performed the Vājapeya yajña for great prosperity. He brought there his purohita Vasishṭha, his wife and sons, his ministers, army and treasury, and founded a kingdom in Daṇḍaka with the four kinds of army. The city named after Ila, in the valley of the Sahya mountains, surpassed even the city of Mahendra. When he had enjoyed it enough, he crowned his elder sons in the kingdom of the solar line that was his by succession, and with great affection consecrated Aila: “Let this boy be the founder of the Candravaṃśa and a glorious king.” Aila, more wise and excellent than all the others, became the eldest.

The sixteen thousand tīrthas and Ileśvara

Sixteen thousand tīrthas arose, on both banks of the Gautamī, where King Ila performed his yajñas, where he met his sons after regaining manhood, and where the rivers born of dance, song, conjugal felicity, auspiciousness and the other gifts of the Yakshiṇī joined the Gaṅgā. “O dear one,” Brahmā tells Nārada, “Śambhu is called Ileśvara here.”

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 38

The phala

• Ilātīrtha brings siddhi to men, purifies even those guilty of brahmahatyā and other grave pāpas, and grants every cherished wish.
• A holy bath and dāna (gifts) at the three confluences of the Nṛtyā, the Gītā and the Saubhāgyā give the reward of the kingdom of the devas.
• A holy bath, dāna and the like in the sixteen thousand tīrthas give the fruit of all yajñas.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 38

Sources

• Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 38