Paiśāca Tīrtha (Ajīgarti)

Paiśāca Tīrtha · paiśāca-tīrtha, “the tīrtha of the piśāca”

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

Paiśāca Tīrtha is a tīrtha on the northern bank of the Gaṅgā, the Gautamī, where of old a brāhmaṇa was freed from the state of a piśāca (a restless spirit of the dead). Brahmā tells Nārada its account in the Gautamī Māhātmya of the Brahma Purāṇa: Ajīgarti, who had sold his son Śunaḥśepa to be offered in a yajña, fell into naraka and was born as a piśāca, and his son, become the son of Viśvāmitra, bathed in the Gautamī and offered tarpaṇa (libations of water) to him, so that he rose radiant to the abode of Vishṇu. From then on the tīrtha is famous as the destroyer of the piśāca state; it is very healing, and merely remembering it removes great pāpas (sins).

Ajīgarti’s pāpa

There was a brāhmaṇa well known in the world as Ajīgarti, the son of Suyava. Crushed by the burden of his family, by famine and want, he sold his middle son Śunaḥśepa, foremost among the knowers of Brahman, to a kshatriya for a great deal of money, to be offered as the victim in a yajña. “What pāpa does a person in distress not commit, even if he is learned?” He also took much money to do the slaying himself. Then he was struck by an incurable disease.

In time he died and was thrown into naraka, for there is no way to remove earlier pāpas except to bear them. At Yama’s command the Yamadūtas moved him through many wombs, and at last he became a terrible piśāca of frightful shape. They dragged him through lonely forests, dry woods and waterless wastes burning with summer forest fires. The Purāṇa teaches that those who sell their daughters, sons, land, horses or cows do not return from naraka until all living beings are destroyed. As the fruit of his pāpas ripened, Yama’s servants roasted his body, and he cried aloud, remembering what he had done.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 80

Śunaḥśepa frees his father

Once, as Śunaḥśepa went along the road, he heard a preta (spirit of the dead) lamenting again and again, and knew the voice of his father. “You are in great distress. Who are you?” he asked. Ajīgarti answered: “I am the father of Śunaḥśepa. Having done a deed of pāpa, I have come to this terrible state. I was roasted in the narakas, and again I hang between births. This is the end of all who do evil.” His son said: “Father, I am your son. On my account you sold me and went to the narakas. Now I shall bring you to svarga.”

Having vowed this, the excellent ṛshi, who had become the son of Viśvāmitra, meditated on the Gaṅgā; for in the three worlds there is no support but the Gaṅgā, flowing from the feet of Vishṇu, for those sinking in the great ocean of delusion and scorched by the fire of every sorrow. He went at once to the Gautamī and bathed there. Pure in mind and body, he remembered Śambhu and Vishṇu and offered tarpaṇa to his father, who had taken the form of a preta.

By that offering alone Ajīgarti was purified and gained a body of great puṇya. By the power of his son and the power of the Gaṅgā, of Śambhu, of Hari and of Vidhātṛ (Brahmā), he shone with the radiance of ten thousand suns, and, seated in a vimāna (celestial chariot), he went to the abode of Vishṇu, frequented by the hosts of devas.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 80

The phala

From then on this tīrtha became very famous as the destroyer of the piśāca state. It is very healing, and merely by remembering it great pāpas vanish. There are three hundred such tīrthas there, frequented by the ṛshis, which give bhukti (enjoyment) and mukti (release) and all siddhis, and which grant cherished desires even when they are only remembered.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 80

Sources

• Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 80