Magadhāraṇya
Magadhāraṇya · magadha-araṇya, “the forest of Magadha”
Magadhāraṇya, the forest of Magadha, is a holy tīrtha named in the Brahma Purāṇa’s great list of the tīrthas and kshetras of the earth, in Chapter 25, the Sarva-tīrtha-māhātmya, “the glory of all the tīrthas”. It stands eighth in that list and the teller calls it pavitra, holy. The Purāṇa says nothing more of where it lies or what took place there; whoever bathes there with the rite the chapter gives gains the fruit of the aśvamedha yajña.
In the list of tīrthas
Asked by the brāhmaṇas how many holy tīrthas and kshetras there are on the earth, the teller first speaks of the inner tīrtha. One whose hands, feet and mind are under control, and who has jñāna (knowledge), 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 and show the path to svarga. If the inner faculty is corrupt, no number of baths makes it pure, just as an impure toddy pot is not made pure though washed in water a hundred times. Wherever a person lives with the senses restrained, that very place is for him Kurukshetra, Prayāga and Pushkara. Then he names the tīrthas and kshetras of the earth, more than four hundred of them, beginning with Pushkara. Magadhāraṇya is the eighth name of that list, after Pushkara, Naimishāraṇya, Prayāga, Dharmāraṇya, Dhenuka, Campakāraṇya and Saindhavāraṇya, and before Daṇḍakāraṇya, Gayā and Prabhāsa-tīrtha. The teller calls it pavitra, holy: it is one of the few names of the list that he marks with an epithet.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 25
The rite and its phala
The chapter gives one rite for all the tīrthas of its list. One who serves these tīrthas with śraddhā (faith), performs the bath and the other prescribed acts, keeps the fast, is master of the senses, offers tarpaṇa (libations of water) to the devas, the ṛshis and the pitṛs, worships the devatās, and fasts there for three nights, gains distinct and endless fruits, and by them the fruit of the aśvamedha yajña. “There is no doubt,” the teller says.
The phalaśruti of the chapter: one who hears or reads this glory of the tīrthas every day is freed from every pāpa (sin).
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 25
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 25