Raudra Kuṇḍa
Raudra Kuṇḍa · raudra-kuṇḍa, “the pool of Rudra”
Raudra Kuṇḍa, “the pool of Rudra“, is one of the eight holy pools (kuṇḍas) at the tīrtha of the confluences of Kadrū and Suparṇā on the bank of the Gaṅgā, the Gautamī, where Maheśvara, Bhagavān Śiva, has come to dwell. Brahmā names the eight to Nārada in the Gautamī Māhātmya of the Brahma Purāṇa: Agnikuṇḍa, and the Raudra, Vaishṇava, Saura, Saumya, Brāhma, Kaumāra and Vāruṇa kuṇḍas. The tīrtha arose when Suparṇā and Kadrū, the wives of Kaśyapa Prajāpati, were turned into rivers by a śāpa and regained their bodies by touching the Gautamī, through the vara of Bhagavān Śiva. It is a little holier than Vārāṇasī, quells every pāpa (sin) and gives the fruit of all yajñas.
The tīrtha and its pools
Brahmā tells Nārada that there are two tīrthas, Suparṇā-saṅgama and Kādrava-saṅgama, where Maheśvara dwells on the banks of the Gaṅgā. The holy pools there are:
The river Apsarā also joins the Gaṅgā there, and that confluence is a tīrtha: merely by remembering it a man becomes assured and content. It quells all pāpas.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 30
How Kadrū and Suparṇā became rivers
Long ago the Vālakhilyas, the great ṛshis, were harassed by Indra. They came to Kaśyapa, gave him half of their tapas and said: “Beget a splendid son through whom Indra’s pride can be humbled.” Kaśyapa said, “So be it.” He made Suparṇā pregnant, and Kadrū too, the mother of the nāgas. Then, wishing to travel, Prajāpati told his two wives: “Commit no offence. Go nowhere. If you go elsewhere you will surely receive a śāpa.”
When their husband had gone, both went to a yajña of the ṛshis on the bank of the Gaṅgā, a yajña-hall crowded with brāhmaṇas. Proud of their youth and wealth, they spoiled the offerings of the yajña, though the ṛshis, the tattvadarśins who see the truth, forbade them again and again. The brāhmaṇas grew angry and pronounced a śāpa (curse): “Since you cling to the wrong path, you will become rivers.” And Suparṇā and Kadrū became rivers.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 30
Kaśyapa’s stotra to Bhagavān Śiva
In time Kaśyapa returned home and heard what had happened at the yajña and of the śāpa on his wives. Not knowing what to do, he told the Vālakhilyas, and they said: “Go to the Gaṅgā Gautamī and praise Maheśāna, and your wives will be yours again. Go to the place in the middle of the Gaṅgā where Bhagavān Maheśvara dwells always, by the name of Madhyameśvara.”
Kaśyapa bathed in the Gaṅgā and praised Maheśvara, ruler of the devas, with sacred stotras:
- “He is the sole master of the three worlds, yet has not the least pride of possession. May Siddhanātha, maker of the whole universe, husband of Śivā, be pleased.”
- “You alone can take away the misery of all embodied beings, moving and unmoving, who run here and there scorched by the sun of the threefold misery (tāpa-traya).”
- “The threefold union of Śiva with sattva, rajas and tamas cannot be told even by Śakra and the others. Knowing Soma to be of many wonderful acts, the excellent one who is ever devoted to dāna is always happy.”
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 30
Bhagavān Śiva’s vara
Praised with these and other stotras, Bhagavān Śiva, the beloved of Gaurī, was pleased, and Śambhu granted Kaśyapa many varas. To Kaśyapa, who sought his wives, he said: “Your two wives will have the forms of rivers. They will reach the Gaṅgā, the most excellent of rivers, and by that touch alone they will regain their own bodies.” By the grace of the Gaṅgā they became pregnant once again.
Kaśyapa, delighted to have his wives back, invited the brāhmaṇas who lived on the banks of the Gautamī, performed the sīmantonnayana (the rite of parting the hair of a pregnant wife) for his wives and fed the brāhmaṇas as the rules direct. As the brāhmaṇas ate, Kadrū, seated near her husband, looked at them, winked and laughed. The brāhmaṇas grew angry and pronounced a śāpa: “Let that eye with which you winked and laughed be split.” Kadrū became blind in one eye; she is called the mother of the serpents. Kaśyapa pacified the brāhmaṇas, and, pleased, they said: “The Gautamī, most excellent of rivers, protects from thousands of wrongs those who take refuge in her.” Kaśyapa did so with his wives.
From then on the confluence of the two rivers has been a tīrtha. The river Kadrū is all round, and the river Sauparṇikā is to the east; the tīrtha Jaṭādhara extends all round, from the Kadrū eastward as far as the Sauparṇikā.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 30
The phala
This tīrtha is a little holier than Vārāṇasī. It quells every pāpa and gives the fruit of all yajñas.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 30
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 30