The Vaitaraṇī is the river that marks the border of Yama’s realm in the geography of the afterlife given by the Purāṇas and the Itihāsa. The crossing is dreadful for those full of pāpa (sin) and easy for the virtuous. For those without puṇya (merit) it is a river of blood and fire. For those held up by good karma and by the rites their descendants perform, it is a gentle ford. In the Vana Parva of the Mahābhārata the Vaitaraṇī is named among the sacred tīrthas that the Pāṇḍavas visited on their pilgrimage with Lomaśa along the eastern coastal route.

The tradition speaks of the Vaitaraṇī in two ways. It is a sacred tīrtha in the geography of Bhārata, the Vaitaraṇī river of Odisha that flows through the Kaliṅga region. It is also the river of the afterlife that the ātmā (soul) must cross to reach Yama’s realm.

The Vaitaraṇī in the tīrtha-yātrā

In the tīrtha-yātrā (pilgrimage) of the Vana Parva, the Vaitaraṇī appears among the tīrthas of the eastern route, the journey through Kaliṅga and the sacred places of the coast.

The Vaitaraṇī cow

The go-dāna (gift of a cow) known as the Vaitaraṇī cow is given to a brāhmaṇa at the time of death. The dying person holds the cow’s tail, and it guides him across the river of the afterlife. This is one of the most widely kept death rites of Sanātana Dharma.

Yudhishṭhira’s vision of naraka

In the Svargārohaṇa Parva, Yudhishṭhira saw the Vaitaraṇī with his own eyes. A devadūta (messenger of the devas) led him along the southern road of naraka (hell) as he looked for his brothers. He saw its scalding, boiling waters, which no one could step through, flowing in darkness and in the stench of the wicked. It lay near the thorn-covered tree Kūṭaśālmalī and the iron cauldrons of boiling oil.

Then the devas arrived, and Dharma himself in bodily form. The vision of naraka was shown to have been a brief trial. The Vaitaraṇī and the Kūṭaśālmalī vanished together with the other torments, and a cool and holy wind blew in their place. This episode shows the Vaitaraṇī as a chief feature of the realm of punishment.

Sources

Mahābhārata, Vana Parva (the tīrthas of the eastern route)
Mahābhārata, Svargārohaṇa Parva, Chapters 2–3
Purāṇic accounts of the geography of the afterlife