Akhaṇḍitahrada
Akhaṇḍitahrada · akhaṇḍita-hrada, “the unbroken lake”
Akhaṇḍitahrada, “the unbroken lake”, is a tīrtha of the earth, the last name in the Brahma Purāṇa’s great list of the tīrthas and kshetras (Chapter 25). With it the list closes, and whoever serves these tīrthas with faith and the prescribed rite gains endless fruits and the fruit of an aśvamedha.
In the list of tīrthas
When the brāhmaṇas asked the teller, the knower of dharma, how many puṇya tīrthas and kshetras there are on the earth, he first taught the inner tīrtha. One whose hands, feet and mind are under control, and who has jñāna, tapas and a good name, gains the fruit of serving all the tīrthas. When the mind, speech and senses are pure, these are tīrthas within one’s own body. But if the inner faculty is corrupt, bathing in any number of tīrthas does not make it pure, just as an impure toddy pot does not become pure though washed a hundred times. Wherever a person lives with the senses restrained, that very place is Kurukshetra, Prayāga and Pushkara for him. Then the teller named the tīrthas and kshetras of the earth, beginning with Pushkara. In that list Akhaṇḍitahrada is named last, after Kanyāśramahrada and Vālakhilya. The list ends with the words “these are the tīrthas so named”.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 25
The rite and its phala
At the close of the list the teller gives the rite for all these tīrthas. One who serves them with śraddhā (faith), performs the bath and the other prescribed acts, fasts, masters the senses, offers tarpaṇa (water offerings) to the devas, ṛshis and pitṛs, worships the devatās and fasts three nights there obtains distinct and endless fruits, and by that the fruit of the aśvamedha yāga. “There is no doubt,” the teller says. And one who daily hears or reads this glory of the tīrthas is freed from every pāpa (sin).
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 25
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 25