Varāhakuṇḍa

Varāhakuṇḍa · varāha-kuṇḍa, “the pool of Varāha”

Varāhakuṇḍa is the place at the Gaṅgāsravaṇa, the flowing place of the Gaṅgā near Mount Brahmagiri, where Bhagavān Vishṇu in the form of Varāha washed his limbs after he came up from Rasātala bearing the Yajña in his mouth. Brahmā tells Nārada its account in the Gautamī Māhātmya of the Brahma Purāṇa, as part of the account of the Varāha tīrtha, the holiest of tīrthas, where a bath and dāna give the fruit of all yajñas and the pitṛs of one who remembers them are freed from every pāpa and go to svarga.

Nārada’s request

Nārada said to Brahmā that his mind was not yet satisfied by the accounts he had heard, and asked to hear the puṇya of each tīrtha of the Gautamī separately, in order, with its account. Brahmā answered that no one could tell, or hear, the whole greatness of the tīrthas; still, bowing to Tryambaka, the three-eyed Bhagavān Śiva, he would speak briefly of the tīrthas told by the ṛshis and the Vedas. First he named the tīrtha Tryambaka, where the three-eyed one revealed himself, which gives both bhukti (enjoyment) and mukti. Then he named the Varāha tīrtha, well known in the three worlds, and told how Vishṇu‘s name came to be joined with it.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 9

The Yajña carried off

Long ago a rākshasa named Sindhusena harassed and defeated the devas. He carried off Yajña, the yajña itself, and went down to pātāla, the nether world. With the Yajña gone, the earth was left without yajña, and when yajña perishes there is neither this world nor the next. The devas pursued the enemy into the nether world, but even with Indra at their head they could not conquer him. So they went to Bhagavān Vishṇu, the Purāṇa-Purusha, and told him how the rākshasa had destroyed the yajña.

Bhagavān Vishṇu said: “Taking the body of a Varāha, with the śaṅkha, the cakra and the gadā in my hands, I shall go to the nether world, slay the chief asuras and bring back the holy Yajña. Let the devas go to svarga, and let the fever of your minds leave you.”

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 9

Varāha in Rasātala

By the very path by which the Gaṅgā had reached the nether regions, the cakra-bearing Bhagavān Vishṇu hastened down to Rasātala, breaking through the earth. In the form of the Varāha he slew the rākshasas and dānavas who lived in Rasātala, and he held the great Yajña in his mouth. Then Bhagavān Varāha, Yajñabhoktā, the enjoyer of yajñas, conqueror of his enemies, came out of Rasātala by the same path by which he had entered it.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 9

How the place got its name

On Mount Brahmagiri the devas were waiting for Hari. Coming out by that path, he came to the Gaṅgāsravaṇa, the flowing place of the Gaṅgā. There he washed his blood-stained limbs with the water of the Gaṅgā, and so the place became known as Varāhakuṇḍa.

Then Hari, best of the devas, placed before the devas the Yajña he had kept in his mouth. So the Yajña was born from his mouth. Since then the sacred ladle has been called the chief part of the yajña, and for this reason its form became that of the Varāha.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 9

The phala

• The Varāha tīrtha is the holiest of tīrthas and grants every desire.
• A bath (snāna) and the giving of dāna there give the fruit of all yajñas.
• If anyone stays there and remembers his ancestors, or does any act of puṇya there, his pitṛs are freed from all pāpas and go to svarga.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 9

Sources

• Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 9