The Vipāśā is a river named for the moment it cut the ropes with which Vasishṭha Maharshi had bound his own body. He had tried to drown himself out of fear of Viśvāmitra, and the river saved him. The name means “freed from bonds” (vi-pāśā). It keeps in memory the river’s own act of freeing the great ṛshi from the pāśa (bond) he had put on himself.

Vasishṭha’s attempted drowning

This was in the time of the great rivalry between Viśvāmitra and Vasishṭha. Vasishṭha lived in fear of the power of Viśvāmitra’s tapas (austerity). He bound his own body with ropes (pāśa) and tried to drown himself in a river, wishing to end his life rather than go on facing that fear. But the river itself cut his bonds before he could die, and so he was saved. From that time the river has been called Vipāśā, “freed from bonds”. The name was made by Vasishṭha’s own act and the river’s help. The Mahābhārata tells this in the Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 3.

Significance

Yudhishṭhira tells of the Vipāśā in a list of the great deeds of Viśvāmitra. In the same list is the rising of the river Kauśikī through Viśvāmitra’s own tapas. Both rivers stand as living witness to the great powers, and the great inner pain, that the rivalry between the two brahmarshis brought about.

Sources

Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 3