Kṛtamālā
Kṛtamālā · kṛta-mālā, “she who is garlanded”
The Kṛtamālā, “she who is garlanded”, is a holy river of the Draviḍa country. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa tells that it was in the Kṛtamālā that the rājarshi Satyavrata, lord of Draviḍa, was offering tarpaṇa when a small fish came into his cupped palms: Bhagavān Śrī Hari, who had taken the form of a fish. The Purāṇa names the Kṛtamālā among the six rivers of the Draviḍa country whose water purifies the heart and awakens bhakti for Vāsudeva, and among the great rivers of Bhārata whose very names purify; and Balarāma bathed in it on his tīrthayātrā.
The fish in Satyavrata’s palms
Śrī Śuka Maharshi tells Parīkshit that at the end of the past kalpa, when Brahmā slept and the Brāhma pralaya came and the lokas sank into the ocean, the mighty asura Hayagrīva stole the Vedas that came from Brahmā’s mouth, and Bhagavān Śrī Hari, the Sarveśvara, took the form of a fish. In that kalpa there was a great rājarshi named Satyavrata, a bhakta of Nārāyaṇa, who performed tapas taking only water as his food; in this kalpa he is Śrāddhadeva, the son of Sūrya, whom Śrī Hari established as Manu.
One day, while Satyavrata was offering tarpaṇa with water in the Kṛtamālā river, some fish came into the water in his cupped palms. Satyavrata, lord of the Draviḍa country, let the fish go with the water back into the river. Then the fish spoke to that most compassionate king: “O king, you love the helpless. How can you leave me in these river waters, among the water-creatures that kill their own kind?” Not knowing that Vishṇu had come in the form of a fish to bless him, the king put the fish in the water of his kalaśa and took it to his āśrama, and there the account of the Matsya avatāra unfolds.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 8, Chapter 24
A river that gives bhakti
In Nārada Maharshi‘s report to Vasudeva of the teaching of the yogīśvaras to King Nimi, Karabhājana says that in the Kali yuga very many bhaktas whose highest goal is Nārāyaṇa are born in the Draviḍa country. In that country are six rivers, in order: Tāmraparṇī, Kṛtamālā, Payasvinī, the supremely pure Kāverī, Pratīcī and Mahānadī. Those who drink the water of these rivers mostly have their inner faculty purified, and bhakti for Vāsudeva arises in them.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 5
Among the great rivers of Bhārata
In Śuka‘s account of Bhārata khaṇḍa, the people of Bhārata bathe in the waters of its rivers, which purify one merely by remembering their names. Of the forty-two great rivers he names, the Kṛtamālā is the fourth, after Candravaśā, Tāmraparṇī and Avaṭodā.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 19
Balarāma’s bath
On his tīrthayātrā through the south, Balarāma went to Ṛshabha parvata, to Dakshiṇa Mathurā and to Rāma-setu, where he gave ten thousand milch cows to brāhmaṇas. Then he bathed in the rivers Kṛtamālā and Tāmraparṇī and went on to the Malaya mountain, where he bowed to Agastya Maharshi.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 79
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 19; Skandha 8, Chapter 24; Skandha 10, Chapter 79; Skandha 11, Chapter 5