Vedadvīpa
Vedadvīpa · veda-dvīpa, “the island of the Vedas”
Yajña has other meanings too: see all meanings of Yajña. Dakshiṇā has other meanings too: see all meanings of Dakshiṇā.
Vedadvīpa, the island of the Vedas, also called Yajñadvīpa, the island of yajñas, is the island at the tīrtha Nimnabheda on the northern bank of the Gautamī (the Godāvarī). Here King Purūravas, son of Iḷā, freed of his grief for Urvaśī by the counsel of his purohita Vasishṭha, took refuge in the Gautamī, worshipped Bhagavān Śiva, Bhagavān Vishṇu, Brahmā, Sūrya and the Gaṅgā, and performed many yajñas with rich dakshiṇā; so the island got its two names. Brahmā tells its account in the Gautamī Māhātmya of the Brahma Purāṇa. By visiting the island one becomes learned in the Vedas; to walk round it is to walk round the whole ocean-girt earth; and Urvaśī comes to it on every full-moon night.
Purūravas and Urvaśī
Brahmā tells that the tīrtha Nimnabheda, on the northern bank of the Gaṅgā, destroys all pāpas and is famous in the three worlds; merely remembering it dispels pāpa. A Vedadvīpa is there, and by visiting it one becomes conversant with the Vedas.
King Purūravas, a king of great dharma, loved Urvaśī, and she came to where the king was. While she lived with him she took only a little ghee as her food, and she made a condition, which the king accepted: she would stay with him only as long as she did not see him naked. Once in the night something drew the king from his bed without his cloth. Urvaśī saw him so and left that very moment.
Meanwhile the king had gone to battle, conquered his enemies, gone again to the world of the devas and come back. From his purohita Vasishṭha he heard that Urvaśī had gone. He was stricken with grief: he did no homa, took no food, and neither saw nor heard anything, as one near death.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 81
Vasishṭha’s counsel
Vasishṭha woke the king with words full of reason. “She is gone from you, great king. Do not grieve, and do not let the arrows of Kāma strike you in this state.” He spoke of the fickleness of women, and asked: “Who has not been struck down by Kāla (Time)? Which suppliant has been honoured? Who has not been set whirling by glory and splendour?” And he told him: “Except Śaṅkara, Vishṇu or the Gautamī, O wise one, there is no other refuge in the three worlds for the miserable.”
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 81
How the island got its names
Hearing this, the king firmly put an end to his sorrow. Standing in the middle of the Gautamī, Aila, the son of Iḷā, worshipped Bhagavān Śiva, Bhagavān Vishṇu, Brahmā, Bhāskara (Sūrya), the Gaṅgā and the devas with great effort. Brahmā reflects: what a plight befalls a creature who, held by Kāla and in adversity, does not take refuge in tīrthas and devatās.
So the king took Īśvara as his only refuge. Eager to serve the Gautamī, full of śraddhā (faith) and turned away from worldly pleasures, he performed many yajñas with plentiful dakshiṇā, with the help of ṛtvijas. Therefore that island came to be called Vedadvīpa and Yajñadvīpa.
On every full-moon night (paurṇamāsī) Urvaśī always comes there.
The tīrtha where the island lies is known as Ailatīrtha, Purūravas-tīrtha, Vāsishṭha and Nimnabheda.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 81
The rite and its phala
- One who visits the Vedadvīpa becomes conversant with the Vedas.
- One who circumambulates the island (pradakshiṇā) has, as it were, circumambulated the whole ocean-girt earth.
- A person of puṇya who remembers the Vedas or performs yajñas in that tīrtha gains the fruit of great Vedic yajñas.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 81
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 81