Irāvatī
Irāvatī
The Irāvatī, also called the Airāvatī, is a holy river of Bhārata that rises from the foot-lands of Himavat. The Vāmana Purāṇa calls her a ṛshi-kanyā, a daughter of a ṛshi, and a river of holy waters. Bhagavān Vishṇu is present at her as Rūpadhara, and by the grace of the Svāmī at the Irāvatī a sufferer of leprosy gained full health and good progeny. At the consecration of Skanda she gave him the gaṇa Caturdaṃshṭra. Prahlāda came to her twice on his tīrtha-yātrā (journey to the holy places), and the brāhmaṇas who left Kurujāṅgala bathed in her on their way north. At her confluence with the Naḍvalā, where the people of Śākala in the Madra country went to bathe, a miser made the one dāna (gift) of his life, and in a later birth the merchant Sudharma, born as a brāhmaṇa, worshipped Bhagavān Vishṇu on her bank and was granted a beautiful form.
Among the rivers of Bhārata
When the rākshasa king Sukeśī asked the maharshis about Jambūdvīpa, they told him of Kumāra-dvīpa, the land of Bhārata, and of the rivers that give water to its lands. Twenty-six rivers rise from the foot-lands of Himavat, and the Airāvatī is the ninth of them: Sarasvatī, Pañcarūpā, Kālindī, Hiraṇvatī, Śatadru, Candrikā, Nīlā, Vitastā, Airāvatī, Kuhū, Madhurā, Hārarāvī, Uśīrā, Dhātukī, Rasā, Gomatī, Dhūtapāpā, Bāhudā, Dṛshadvatī, Niścirā, Gaṇḍakī, Citrā, Kauśikī, Vadūsarā, Sarayū and Lauhitya. All these rivers, the ṛshis said, are supremely pure, and they are the wives of the ocean.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 13
Her gift to Skanda
When Kumāra was consecrated at Kurukshetra as the leader of all the deva armies, Bhagavān Śiva, Brahmā, Vishṇu and the devas gave him attendants of their own, and then the rivers offered their gaṇas, one by one. The Irāvatī gave him the gaṇa Caturdaṃshṭra, the four-tusked. In this way all the rivers helped in the work of Kārttikeya.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 31
Prahlāda and Parameśvara at the Irāvatī
Pulastya Maharshi told Nārada of the tīrtha-yātrā of Prahlāda. After Bhadrakarṇa and the river Vipāśā, Prahlāda went to the Irāvatī, had darśana (sacred sight) of Parameśvara and worshipped that Svāmī. Formerly, in the city of Śākala, Purūravas obtained wealth and beauty that are hard to gain, and by the grace of that Svāmī a sufferer of leprosy gained full health and good progeny. Then Nārada asked how Purūravas had worshipped Vishṇu and gained beauty, and Pulastya told him an account that removes pāpa (sin).
At the beginning of the Tretā yuga a merchant named Sudharma, of Śākala in the Madra country, lost all his goods to robbers in a desert and came to a lone śamī tree. There a preta (a departed being) leader, carried by another preta, welcomed him and fed him, and then his own retinue, from two pots of curd-rice and clear water that appeared from nowhere and vanished when all had eaten. The preta said that in his life he had been Somaśarmā, a brāhmaṇa of Śākala and a great miser. In the month of Bhādrapada, at the parva of Dvādaśī, the people of the city went to bathe at the confluence of the Irāvatī and the Naḍvalā. Somaśarmā went with his neighbour, the Vishṇu-bhakta vaiśya Somaśrava, bathed at the saṅgama, kept the Ekādaśī fast, and gave a brāhmaṇa a new water pot covered with a cloth, an umbrella, a pair of sandals and a pot of sweet curd-rice. It was the only dāna of his seventy years. Now, as a preta, the two pots came to him every day at midday, the umbrella had become the shade of the śamī tree, and the sandals were the pretas who carried him. Such, he said, is the great fruit of the Śravaṇa Dvādaśī vrata.
Sudharma offered piṇḍas for the pretas at Gayāśira, and they all went to Brahmaloka. Sudharma kept the Śravaṇa Dvādaśī vrata through many births. In one of them he was born a brāhmaṇa in Śākala, master of all the śāstras but ugly in form, and his wife despised him. Grieving, he worshipped Bhagavān Vishṇu on the bank of the Irāvatī river and obtained a beautiful form as a vara (boon). With the Nakshatra Purusha vrata he became beautiful in that very birth, and after death he was born as Purūravas.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 53
Prahlāda’s bath on Caitra ashṭamī
Pulastya went on with the tīrtha-yātrā of Prahlāda. Prahlāda went to the holy Irāvatī, who is a ṛshi-kanyā, bathed, and on Caitra ashṭamī (the eighth day of the month of Caitra) worshipped Janārdana. Being pure, that lord of the dānavas performed there the puṇya-giving nakshatra vrata, and then went on to Kurukshetra.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 55
The brāhmaṇas’ journey north
When Bali came to Kurukshetra to perform a yajña and Śukrācārya invited only the brāhmaṇas of his own Bhṛgu line, the brāhmaṇas of the Ātreya and Gautama gotras and the Kauśika and Āṅgirasa brāhmaṇas left Kurujāṅgala and went north. They bathed in the Śatadru and the Vipāśā, then in the Kiraṇā, which flowed from the rays of Sūrya, and all the maharshis bathed in the Airāvatī, whose waters are holy. From there they went on to the Īśvarī, the Devikā and the Payoshṇī.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 62
Bhagavān Vishṇu as Rūpadhara
When Bhagavān Vāmana told Bharadvāja Ṛshi the places where his forms abide on earth, he said that at the Irāvatī he is present as Rūpadhara. Of all these places he said that they are eternal, ancient and holy; they give dharma, are full of tejas (radiance), destroy pāpa and are always to be praised. Devas, humans and sādhyas who see, touch, praise and remember the forms dwelling in them attain all four purushārthas (aims of life): dharma, artha, kāma and moksha. “This is certain,” Bhagavān Vāmana said.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 63
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 13, 31, 53, 55, 62–63