Gaṅgādhara (Tīrtha)
Gaṅgādhara Tīrtha · gaṅgā-dhara tīrtha, “the tīrtha that bears the Gaṅgā”
Kapilā has other meanings too: see all meanings of Kapilā.
Gaṅgādhara is a tīrtha at Tuṅgakūṭa. Chapter 219 of the Brahma Purāṇa tells that Bhagavān Vishṇu, as Varāha, took its water for the first śrāddha, the rite that lifted the pitṛs out of the water of the river Kokā.
The first śrāddha
The munis asked how sons and other relatives should perform śrāddha for those who have gone to the other world. Vyāsa bowed to Jagannātha and to Varāha-mūrti and told them how, long ago, Bhagavān Vishṇu as Varāha performed śrāddha and lifted out the pitṛs who had sunk in the water of the Kokā.
At the junction of the Tretā and Dvāpara yugas, the divine and human pitṛs lived on Mount Meru with the Viśvedevas. Ūrjā, the daughter of Soma, came and chose them as her husbands. The Viśvedevas saw that the pitṛs had fallen from yoga and left them. Candra pronounced a śāpa: the pitṛs fell to the foot of the Himālaya, and Ūrjā became the river Kokā there. When the rākshasas fell on the pitṛs, the pitṛs lifted a rock on the bank; the river’s current grew and flooded over them. Sunk in the water, holding the rock on their heads, they took refuge in Bhagavān Vishṇu with a stotra: “Govinda, be victorious! O Varāha-mūrti, protect us.”
Bhagavān Vishṇu showed his divine form. As Varāha he struck the rock with his tusk, flung it away and drew the pitṛs up out of the water; the place got the name Vishṇu-tīrtha.
The water of Gaṅgādhara
Then Bhagavān Varāha made ready the śrāddha. He took darbhas born from his hairs and sesame born from his sweat, made a firebrand shining like the sun, and shaped a vessel for the holy water. Standing under the banyan called Koṭi-vaṭa, he took the water of the tīrtha called Gaṅgādhara from Tuṅgakūṭa. He took the herbs fit for yajña, honey and milk, fragrances, flowers, dhūpa and dīpa, a cow from the lake and gems from the ocean. He prepared the ground with his tusk, with water and with kuśa, invited the ṛshis, and with their assent performed the pitṛ-tarpaṇa: he invited the Viśvedevas and the pitṛs, gave arghya, offered the homa to Soma, Agni and Yama, and fed the brāhmaṇas.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 219
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 219