Mārkaṇḍeya Tīrtha (Gautamī)
Mārkaṇḍeya Tīrtha · mārkaṇḍeya-tīrtha, “the tīrtha of Mārkaṇḍeya”
Mārkaṇḍeya has other meanings too: see all meanings of Mārkaṇḍeya.
Mārkaṇḍeya Tīrtha, also called Mārkaṇḍa, is a tīrtha on the northern bank of the Gaṅgā Gautamī (the Godāvarī), frequented by ṛshis. Here Bhagavān Śiva answered a question of the great ṛshis on the means to moksha, declaring that everything is gained through karma, and the place was named after Mārkaṇḍeya, the chief of those ṛshis. Brahmā tells its account to Nārada in the Gautamī Māhātmya of the Brahma Purāṇa. The tīrtha rids one of all pāpas and dispels heaps of pāpa; it is full of puṇya and gives the fruit of all yajñas.
The ṛshis’ question
Mārkaṇḍeya, Bharadvāja, Vasishṭha, Atri, Gautama, Yājñavalkya, Jābāla and other ṛshis, the makers of the śāstras, masters of the Vedas and the Vedāṅgas, knowers of the Purāṇas, of Nyāya and of Mīmāṃsā, talked together about moksha, each as far as his understanding reached. Some praised jñāna (knowledge), some praised karma (holy rites), and some praised both. After discussing it they asked Brahmā for his view. Having learned it, they went to Bhagavān Vishṇu, who bears the cakra and the gadā, and learned his view too, and they discussed it once again. Then they set out to ask Śaṅkara. They worshipped Bhava at the Gaṅgā and put the same question to him.
Śiva’s teaching
Bhagavān Śiva, the destroyer of the three cities, declared the importance of karma, holy rites, and said that karma itself is what is called jñāna. “So all living beings gain siddhi only through karma. Karma alone pervades the whole universe; without it nothing can be gained. The performance of yajñas, svādhyāya (the study of the Veda), the pūjā of Śiva, the practice of yoga: all of it is karma. Nowhere does a living being exist without karma. Karma alone is the cause of moksha; anything other than it is the act of one who has lost his senses.”
The tīrtha and its phala
The place where the ṛshis held their discussion, and where Bhagavān Maheśvara decided that everything is gained by men through karma, is called Mārkaṇḍa, that is, Mārkaṇḍeya, because Mārkaṇḍeya was the chief of those ṛshis. It lies on the northern bank of the Gaṅgā. It purifies the pitṛs (ancestors), it is always holy, and it gives its fruit even when merely remembered. Viśvarūpa, who is one with the universe, says there are ninety-eight tīrthas there; the Vedas say the same, and the ṛshis accept it.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 75
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 75