Phenā-saṅgama

Phenā-saṅgama · phenā-saṅgama, “the confluence of the Phenā (the river of foam)”

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

Phenā-saṅgama is a tīrtha on the southern bank of the Gautamī Gaṅgā (the Godāvarī), at the confluence of the river Phenā with Gaṅgā. The Phenā takes its name from phena, the foam of the waters with which Indra slew the dānava Namuci: the foam became the vajra (thunderbolt), fell on the southern bank and pierced the earth, and the water of Gaṅgā rose up from pātāla along its path. The confluence is holy, famed in all the worlds, and destroys all pāpas like the confluence of the Gaṅgā and the Yamunā. The tīrtha of Hanūmanta is at this confluence, and Indra bathed here before he praised Bhagavān Vishṇu. Brahmā tells Nārada of it in the Gautamī Māhātmya of the Brahma Purāṇa.

The confluence named among the tīrthas

In his account of the tīrthas near the Añjana mountain, beyond the Mārjāra tīrtha and the tīrtha of Hanūmanta and Vṛshākapi, Brahmā names the confluence of the Phena, which bestows all desired things. Its form, nature and place, he says, are told in their own place.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 14

Namuci and the foam that became the vajra

Brahmā names a group of tīrthas: Indratīrtha, Vṛshākapatīrtha, the confluence of the Phenā, where the tīrtha of Hanūmanta is, and Abjaka, where Bhagavān Vishṇu dwells as Trivikrama. A holy bath and dāna in these tīrthas prevent return to worldly existence. Then he tells what happened on the southern bank of Gaṅgā.

Namuci, the enemy of Indra, was very strong and full of arrogance, and he fought with Indra. Indra cut off Namuci’s head with phena, the foam of the waters: the foam took the form of the vajra and cut off the head of Indra’s enemy. Afterwards the foam fell to the ground on the southern bank of Gaṅgā, pierced the earth and entered pātāla, the nether worlds. By the path the vajra had made, the sacred water of Gaṅgā that rises in pātāla came up to the earth, and that water became the river Phenā, named after the foam. The confluence of the Phenā with Gaṅgā is holy and well known in all the worlds; it destroys all pāpas, like the confluence of the Gaṅgā and the Yamunā.

Indra’s bath at the confluence

Later, when Indra had been humbled again and again by the daitya Mahāśani, son of Hiraṇya, he came to the Gautamī in the Daṇḍaka forest at the counsel of his wife Śacī and praised Bhagavān Śiva. Śiva told him that his enemy could not be slain through Śiva alone, and sent him to propitiate Bhagavān Vishṇu, telling him of the great ṛshi Āpastamba on the southern bank of Gaṅgā, whose mind stays fixed on the feet of Mukunda.

After bathing at the sacred confluence of the Phenā and Gaṅgā, Indra praised Bhagavān Vishṇu on the southern bank together with Āpastamba, reciting many kinds of Vedic mantras with great purity of mind, and propitiated him with tapas (austerity). Bhagavān Vishṇu was pleased and granted his prayer, and by the grace of Śiva, Vishṇu and Gaṅgā a being with the form of both Śiva and Vishṇu, holding the triśūla and the cakra, rose from the water. He went to the nether worlds and slew Mahāśani. He is Abjaka, born of the water, also called Vṛshākapi, and he became Indra’s friend.

The phala

The confluence of the Phenā destroys all pāpas, like the confluence of the Gaṅgā and the Yamunā, and it bestows all desired things. A holy bath and the giving of dāna in Indratīrtha, Vṛshākapatīrtha, the Phenā confluence with the tīrtha of Hanūmanta, and Abjaka prevent return to worldly existence.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 59

Sources

• Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapters 14, 59