Kapotatīrtha (Gautamī)
Kapotatīrtha · kapota-tīrtha, “the tīrtha of the pigeon”
Vimāna has other meanings too: see all meanings of Vimāna.
Kapotatīrtha is an excellent tīrtha on the Gaṅgā, the Gautamī, well known in the three worlds. It takes its name from a pigeon (kapota) who, with his wife, gave his own body to feed a cruel hunter who had come to their tree as a guest. Brahmā tells Nārada the account in the Gautamī Māhātmya of the Brahma Purāṇa. The two pigeons rose to svarga on a vimāna; the hunter, at their word, bathed in the Gautamī, was freed of his pāpas and followed them. All rites done at Kapotatīrtha bear everlasting fruit.
The hunter of Brahmagiri
On Brahmagiri there lived a terrible hunter. He harassed brāhmaṇas, tapasvins and good men, and cows, birds and animals; he was quick to fury and a speaker of untruth. He was of fearsome and deformed shape, his voice like the braying of a donkey, a noose in his hand and his bow ever ready, and his wife and children were like him. Urged by his wife, he went into the dense forest, killed many animals and birds, and shut some, living and dead, in a cage.
As he turned home, tired, hungry and thirsty, a storm broke in the afternoon after the months of spring. Clouds covered the sky, thunder rumbled, a violent wind blew and hail fell. He could not tell water from land or find his path, and he thought that his own death had come to him. Then he saw a splendid tree, like the moon among the stars, the saviour of living beings, and sat beneath it in his drenched clothes, thinking of his wife and children, as the sun set.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 10
The pigeon couple
In that tree a pigeon had lived happily for many years with his wife, his sons and his grandsons, in a hollow untouched by rain or wind. That day both had gone out for food, and the she-pigeon had been caught alive by the hunter. The pigeon came home to an empty hollow and children without their mother, and lamented, praising his chaste wife: the source of his welfare, the mother of his dharma, his help in dharma, artha, kāma and moksha, for whom her husband was her vrata, her life and her mantra. “Without her this house seems a forest.”
From the cage the she-pigeon heard him. “I am here, bound by the hunter. I am blessed that my husband speaks of my qualities. You are my devatā, my lord, my friend, my refuge, my vrata, my svarga and my moksha. Do not grieve for me; keep your mind steady in dharma.”
The pigeon flew down and, seeing the hunter lying motionless as though dead, wished to free her. She stopped him: “Birds are the food of hunters; this hunter is not at fault. The guest (atithi) is guru to all. When a guest is honoured with kind words, Vāgdevī is pleased; when he is given food, Indra and Prajāpati are pleased; when his feet are washed, the pitṛs are pleased; when he is served, Bhagavān Vishṇu with Lakshmī is pleased; when he is given a bed, the devas are pleased. The devas, the pitṛs and the fires follow a tired guest. One who befriends even those who harm him is truly dhārmika. Let our guest be honoured.”
“We keep our wealth in our beaks,” said the pigeon. “How shall I honour him?” She answered: “Fire, water and kind words may be offered to a guest. This hunter is suffering from cold.”
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 10
The fire and the offering
The pigeon flew up, saw a fire far off, brought a burning splinter in his beak and lit a fire before the hunter, feeding it through the night with dry twigs, leaves and grass, and the hunter warmed his limbs. Seeing him burning with hunger, the she-pigeon asked to be freed so that she could satisfy him with her own body. But the pigeon said that while he lived this duty was his. He went three times round the fire, remembering Mahāvishṇu, four-armed, the ātmā of the universe, the refuge of all, ever gracious to his bhaktas, and saying “Eat as you please”, he entered the fire.
The hunter cried: “Fie upon my life in a human body, for this king of birds has done this for my sake.” At the she-pigeon’s plea he released her. She went round the fire, bowed to the Earth, the devas, the Gaṅgā and the trees, consoled her children, asked the hunter’s pardon for leaving them, and followed her husband into the fire, and at once a cry of victory (jaya) arose.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 10
The vimāna and the hunter’s bath
The pair were seen in the sky on a vimāna (a celestial chariot) shining like the sun, like devas themselves. “We go to the abode of the devas,” they told the astonished hunter. “The guest in you has been our staircase to svarga. Namaskāra to you.” The hunter threw away his cage and his bow and, with joined palms, asked them, as their guest, to teach him how to make prāyaścitta (expiation).
They said: “Go to the river Gautamī. Bathe there for a fortnight and you will be freed from your pāpas. Freed from pāpa, plunge into the Gaṅgā again and you will gain the puṇya of an aśvamedha. Bathing in the Gautamī, you will leave this defiled body and go to svarga on an excellent vimāna.” The hunter did so. He took a divine form, with divine garlands and garments, sat on an excellent vimāna praised by the apsarās, and the pigeon, his wife and the hunter all went to svarga. “Such is the power of the Gaṅgā,” says Brahmā.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 10
The name and the phala
From then on that tīrtha is well known by the name Kapota. All rites done there, the holy bath, dāna, the pūjā of the pitṛs, japa, yajña and every other, give everlasting (akshaya) fruit.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 10
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 10