Yāmya Tīrtha (Hariścandra’s Yajña)
Yāmya Tīrtha · yāmya-tīrtha, “the tīrtha of Yama”
Yāmya has other meanings too: see all meanings of Yāmya.
Yāmya Tīrtha is a tīrtha on the southern bank of the Gautamī (the Godāvarī), one of the many that arose where King Hariścandra performed his naramedha yajña and the brāhmaṇa boy Śunaḥśepa was set free by the grace of the devas and the ṛshis. Brahmā names it to Nārada in the Gautamī Māhātmya of the Brahma Purāṇa, in a list of fifteen tīrthas of that place: Viśvāmitra, Hariścandra, Śunaḥśepa, Rohita, Vāruṇa, Brāhma, Āgneya, Aindra, Aindava, Aiśvara, Maitra, Vaishṇava, Yāmya, Āśvina and Auśana. Twenty-two thousand tīrthas arose there in all; a bath and dāna in them give the fruit of a naramedha, and hearing their account gives a son to one who has none.
The glory of a son
Hariścandra was a king of the line of Ikshvāku. When the ṛshis Nārada and Parvata came to his abode, he received them with great hospitality and asked: “The whole world suffers for the sake of a son. What does one gain from a son, wise or foolish, excellent or middling?”
The two ṛshis answered: “To a man without a son the other world does not exist, and he cannot be happy in this one. One who bathes at the birth of his son gains the fruit of the bath at the end of ten aśvamedhas. What the devas gain by amṛta, people gain by a son. A son frees his father and grandfathers from the three debts. Of what use are vows, matted hair and tapas without a son? The son is dharma, kāma and artha; the son is moksha, the great light, who carries beings across. Without him dāna and yajña bear no fruit. Seeing the face of a living son, a father gains every joy of this world and of svarga.” Wondering, the king asked how he might gain a son, by any means at all. After a moment’s meditation the ṛshis said: “Go to the Gautamī. There Varuṇa, ruler of the waters, fulfils every wish held in the mind. When he is pleased he will grant you a son.”
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 34
Hariścandra’s vow to Varuṇa
On the banks of the Gautamī Hariścandra propitiated Varuṇa, and Varuṇa, pleased, said: “I shall grant you a son, if you are ready to offer him in yajña.” The king said, “I shall offer him.” He prepared the caru (offering) of Varuṇa and gave it to his wife, and a son was born. At once Varuṇa came: “Offer the son today. Do you remember your promise?”
Each time Varuṇa came, the king put him off: a yajña animal is fit only after ten days; it is useless without teeth; when the boy was seven and had his teeth, the king said they would fall and new ones grow; when the new teeth had grown, he said a kshatriya is the best yajña animal only when he knows the science of archery. At last, when Rohita was sixteen, skilled in the divine astras, learned in the Vedas and śāstras and crowned yuvarāja (heir), Varuṇa came again: “Offer your son.”
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 34
Rohita and Śunaḥśepa
The king said “Yes” and called Rohita: “Come, my son; I shall offer you to Varuṇa.” When his father had told him everything, Rohita answered, in Varuṇa’s hearing: “I am pure and in haste. First I shall perform a yajña to Bhagavān Vishṇu, Jagannātha, with Varuṇa as the yajña animal.” Varuṇa was overcome with anger. Rohita took his divine bow, mounted his chariot and went to the forest on the banks of the Gaṅgā, the very place where his father had propitiated Varuṇa; and Varuṇa afflicted Hariścandra with dropsy (as the translation has it).
In the sixth year Rohita heard of his father’s illness and grieved that he had been the cause of his father’s suffering. On the banks of the Gaṅgā he met the ṛshi Ajīgarta, wandering without livelihood with his wife and three sons. Ajīgarta offered to sell one of them, but he would not sell his eldest son Śunaḥpuccha, and the mother would not sell the youngest; so he sold the middle son, Śunaḥśepa, for a thousand cows, grain, gold coins and clothes. Rohita brought the boy to his father: “Perform the yajña to Varuṇa with this animal, and be free of your illness.”
Hariścandra refused: “The king must protect the brāhmaṇas, kshatriyas and vaiśyas, and the brāhmaṇas above all. They are one with the tīrthas and with the devas; they save those about to fall into naraka. I will not make a brāhmaṇa the yajña animal; it is better to die of illness.” Then a voice from the sky (aśarīrī vāṇī) spoke: “Go to the Gautamī with your ṛtvijas, your purohitas, Rohita and this brāhmaṇa boy. Perform the yajña there without killing Śunaḥśepa, and it shall be complete.”
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 34
The yajña on the Gautamī
The king hastened to the Gaṅgā with the ṛshi Viśvāmitra, his purohita Vasishṭha, the ṛshi Vāma and others. On the Gautamī he took dīkshā for the naramedha, prepared the vedi, the maṇḍapa and the kuṇḍa, and set up the yūpa. Śunaḥśepa was tied to the yūpa with mantras and sprinkled with water. Then Viśvāmitra spoke to the devas, the ṛshis, the king and Rohita: “Free this brāhmaṇa boy. Let him not be offered in the fire. Let the brāhmaṇas go and bathe in the Gautamī, praise the devas one by one with mantras and stotras, and rejoice; and let the ṛshis and devas protect this boy.” All agreed. Śunaḥśepa bathed in the Gaṅgā, the purifier of the three worlds, and praised the devas, the partakers of the offerings. Delighted, the devas said, “Let this yajña be complete without killing Śunaḥśepa,” and Varuṇa himself said so to the king. So the naramedha, known in all the worlds, was completed by the grace of the devas and the ṛshis of the tīrtha. Viśvāmitra honoured Śunaḥśepa before the devas and made him the eldest of his sons; the sons who would not accept him as eldest received his śāpa, and those who accepted him received his varas.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 34
The tīrthas and their phala
Brahmā says that all these events happened on the southern bank of the Gautamī, and that many famous tīrthas arose there, praised by the devas and others: Hariścandra, Śunaḥśepa, Viśvāmitra, Rohita and the rest, twenty-two thousand in all.
- A bath and dāna there give the fruit of a naramedha.
- One who reads this account, has it read, or listens to it with bhakti gains a son if he has none, and other things pleasing to his mind.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 34
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 34