Kuśāvarta

Kuśāvarta · kuśa-āvarta, “the eddy of kuśa grass”

Kuśāvarta is a tīrtha named twice in the Bhavishya Purāṇa: among the tīrthas whose water is contemplated in the abhisheka of Bhagavān Sūrya, and among the holy tīrthas for the bath on Kārtikī pūrṇimā in the Kṛttikā vrata.

In Bhagavān Sūrya’s abhisheka

Brahmā tells Rudra the rite of the abhisheka. On Pushya śukla saptamī abhisheka is done to the Devadeva by rule. Sūrya‘s image is set up by the Vedic method, and clean water is brought from a puṇya tīrtha or any pure source. Holding the names of the puṇya tīrthas in the mind, one makes the bhāvanā, the inner contemplation, that the water is the water of each of them, in order: Prayāga, Pushkara, Kurukshetra, Naimiśa, Pṛthūdaka, Candrabhāgā, Śoṇa, Gokarṇa, Brahmāvarta, Kuśāvarta, Bilvaka, Nīlaparvata, Gaṅgādvāra, Gaṅgāsāgara, Kālapriya, Mitravana, Śuṇḍīra-kshetra, Cakratīrtha, Rāmatīrtha, Vitastā, Harshapantha, Devikā, Gaṅgā, Sarasvatī, Sindhu, Narmadā, Vipāśā, Yamunā, Tāpī, Śivā, Vetravatī, Godāvarī, Payoshṇī, Kṛshṇā, Veṇyā, Śatarudrā, Pushkariṇī, Kauśikī and Sarayū, and all the other puṇya tīrthas, seas, āśramas and kshetras. After this snāna one worships, bows, and gives dhūpa and arghya.

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapter 55

The bath of Kārtikī pūrṇimā

In the Kṛttikā vrata, Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Yudhishṭhira that on the morning of Kārtikī pūrṇimā, after cleaning the teeth, one takes the niyama of nakta-vrata or of upavāsa, and bathes at any holy tīrtha such as Pushkara, Prayāga, Kurukshetra, Naimisha, Śālagrāma, Kuśāvarta, Mūlasthāna, Sakuntala, Gokarṇa, Arbuda or Amarakaṇṭaka, or in one’s own house. Then one does pūjā of the devatās, ṛshis, pitṛs and guests and offers homa, and in the evening sets up images of the six Kṛttikās.

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 103

Sources

• Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapter 55; Uttara Parva, Chapter 103