Yajñatīrtha

Yajñatīrtha · yajña-tīrtha, “the tīrtha of the yajña”

Yajñatīrtha is an island in the middle of the Gaṅgā, the Gautamī (the Godāvarī), in the Daṇḍaka forest. The devas had it made as a resting place for their cows, after Bhagavān Vishṇu had won the cows back from the rākshasas, and on it they performed their yajña with those cows. So the island of the cows is called Yajñatīrtha, “the tīrtha of the yajña”, and also Devayajana, “the place of the devas’ yajña”. Brahmā tells Nārada its account in the Gautamī Māhātmya of the Brahma Purāṇa. The Purāṇa calls it the splendid giver of all cherished desires: one who circles the island after bathing gains the fruit of circling the whole earth, and a homa there gives the fruit of the aśvamedha.

Saramā and the stolen cows

There was a divine dog (devaśunī) named Saramā. She had two excellent sons, four-eyed dogs who lived on air alone and were the favourites of Yama. Saramā kept watch over the cows of the devas and over the animals set apart for their yajñas, and the rākshasas, daityas and dānavas followed her as she kept watch. They tempted her with pleasing words and gifts, and the splendid cows were carried away. Saramā came slowly to the devas and said: “The rākshasas bound me with nooses and struck me. The cows and the animals kept for the yajñas have been taken away.”

Bṛhaspati, the guru of the devas, said that the cows could not have been taken without her connivance. At his word Indra struck Saramā with his foot, and milk flowed from her mouth. “You have drunk milk given to you by the rākshasas,” Indra said, “and that is why our cows are gone.” Saramā answered: “It is not my fault, O Devendra. It was on your arrival that the cows were taken. Your enemies are very powerful.” Then Bṛhaspati sat in dhyāna and saw that she had sided with the enemies, and Indra pronounced a śāpa (curse) on her: “Become a dog in the mortal world. You have done this pāpa out of ignorance.” So she was born in the mortal world and became very terrible.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 61

Bhagavān Vishṇu wins back the cows

Indra told Bhagavān Vishṇu what had happened. Bhagavān Vishṇu, Jagannātha, who is worshipped by the devas, took up his great divine bow Śārṅga, famous in the three worlds, and stood in the Daṇḍaka forest with the Śārṅga in his hand. There he slew the powerful daityas, dānavas and rākshasas who had taken the cows, and there he is known as Śārṅgapāṇi, “the one with the Śārṅga in his hand”. The rest fled in fear to the south. Bhagavān Vishṇu followed them on Garuḍa, his divine vāhana, and with arrows swift as the mind, empowered by mantras, he slew them on the northern bank of the Gaṅgā. The place where the cows were recovered is Bāṇatīrtha, also known as Vaishṇava tīrtha and Gotīrtha.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 61

The island of the cows

The cows had been set apart as yajña animals on the southern bank of the Gaṅgā. They had fled, and the devas herded them together on the river. In the middle of the river the devas had an island made as a resting place for the cows, and with those cows they performed their yajña on the Gaṅgā. That island of the cows is Yajñatīrtha, and that place of the devas’ yajña, Devayajana, is the giver of all cherished desires.

Here the Purāṇa praises the Gaṅgā herself: her divine power takes an embodied form; she is a raft that carries one across the boundless ocean of saṃsāra (the round of birth and death); she is Yogamāyā, the Devī of the universe, who grants freedom from fear to her bhaktas. Beyond the island, on the southern bank, is the tīrtha of Gorakshā, “the protection of the cows”.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 61

How Yama freed Saramā

Saramā‘s two sons told Yama of their mother’s fault and the śāpa that followed, and asked how the śāpa might be removed. Yama went with them to his father Sūrya, who told him to bathe with faith and a pure mind in the Gautamī Gaṅgā in the Daṇḍaka forest and to praise Brahmā, Vishṇu, Sūrya and Īśa in due order. With the dogs, Yama worshipped Sūrya and Brahmā on the southern bank; alone, he worshipped Īśāna and Vishṇu on the northern bank. They granted the vara that removed Saramā’s śāpa, and Yama asked that all who bathe in these tīrthas should gain their desires.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 61

The rites at the island and their phala

• One who, with self-control and holy observances, bathes in Gotīrtha or Brahmatīrtha, bows to Brahmā and walks around the island in pradakshiṇā (keeping it on the right) gains the fruit of circling the whole earth of seven dvīpas, with all the treasures within it.
• One who comes to Devayajana, gives even a little gold or money to a brāhmaṇa and performs a homa in the sacred fire with any offering at all gains in abundance the fruit of the aśvamedha and other yajñas.
• One who recites the Gāyatrī, mother of the Vedas, even once there gains the fruit of studying all the Vedas.
• One who performs all these rites without desire for their fruit (nishkāma) becomes fit for moksha.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 61

The phalaśruti

Brahmā tells Nārada that there are eight thousand and three tīrthas such as these, and that a bath and dāna in them give everlasting puṇya.

• Remembering these tīrthas destroys the pāpas of many births.
• Listening to their glory brings moksha together with one’s pitṛs (ancestors).
• Reading their account liberates one with all the members of one’s family, and by Brahmā’s command even their terrible pāpas are destroyed.
• One who bathes there, gives dāna with a controlled mind, offers piṇḍas and bows to these devas gains wealth, grain, fame, valour, long life, health, sons, grandsons, a beloved wife and every desired thing; he is never parted from his kin, raises even pitṛs who are in naraka and purifies his family; and remembering Bhagavān Vishṇu and Bhagavān Śiva at the time of death, he attains moksha.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 61

Sources

• Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 61