Rūpatīrtha
Rūpatīrtha · rūpa-tīrtha, “the tīrtha of beauty”
Rūpatīrtha is a holy tīrtha (a sacred place of pilgrimage and bathing), also known as the Śūkarava kshetra, where Bhagavān Vishṇu is worshipped. The Brahma Purāṇa names it among the tīrthas and kshetras of the earth in Chapter 25, and in Chapter 228 it tells what this tīrtha did for one devotee. The apsarā Urvaśī sent the brāhmaṇa she had named Satyatapas, “he whose tapas is truth”, to the Śūkarava kshetra, famous as Rūpatīrtha, promising that there he would gain siddhi and then obtain her. He lived there in peace, keeping niyamas and vratas. He gave up his body there twice, and each time he went to a higher world: first to the Gandharva loka, then, after a life as a king, to Indra loka, each for hundreds of manvantaras. At last he was born as Purūravas, son of Budha, and won Urvaśī. By worshipping Śrī Mahāvishṇu at Rūpatīrtha he enjoyed every bhoga and also attained mukti (moksha).
In the list of tīrthas
The listeners asked the teller, “O knower of dharma, how many holy tīrthas and kshetras are there on the earth? Tell us,” and in his answer he named more than four hundred, beginning with Pushkara. Rūpa-tīrtha comes early in the list, after Kedāra, Mandarāraṇya, Mahābala, Koṭi-tīrtha and Sarvapāpahara-tīrtha, and before Śūkarava-tīrtha, Cakra-tīrtha, which the text calls the giver of great fruit, and Yoga-tīrtha.
The chapter gives one rite for all the tīrthas of the list. One who serves these tīrthas with śraddhā (faith), performs the bath and the other prescribed acts, keeps the fast, is master of his 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. One who hears or reads this glory of the tīrthas every day is freed from every pāpa (sin).
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 25
How Satyatapas came to Rūpatīrtha
Vyāsa tells the munis this account in Chapter 228, as part of the fruit of keeping the night vigil (prajāgara) of Ekādaśī and singing the glory of Bhagavān Vishṇu. A cāṇḍāla of Avantī, a singer who had kept that vigil for twenty years, passed through a chain of births. In one of them he was born in Vārāṇasī as a foolish brāhmaṇa.
When this brāhmaṇa was thirty years old, a wandering siddha who had come from svarga told him of Urvaśī, the apsarā born from the thigh of Nārāyaṇa Muni and the bearer of Indra‘s cāmara. In mockery the brāhmaṇa asked the siddha to carry word of him to her. Urvaśī said she did not know him, and asked by what sign she might recognise him: if he took up some niyama (a rule of conduct), she could know him by it. The brāhmaṇa sent back his niyama: “From now on I will not eat a śakaṭa (a cart).” Urvaśī said, “That fool said this to mock me.”
Urvaśī then came to Vārāṇasī in a divine body and was bathing in the Matsyodarī tīrtha when the brāhmaṇa saw her and was overcome by desire. She knew him, and promised to return in a moment. She went to svarga and came back a month later, and found him wasted on the riverbank, where he had waited all that time without food, firm in his resolve. She took the form of an old woman and offered him, as the dāna of her vrata’s udyāpana (concluding rite), a cart filled with sugar, honey and ghee. Starving as he was, he refused it, for he had vowed not to eat a śakaṭa. She said that his vow was about a cart of wood, and this was a cart of sugar; he answered that he had said “śakaṭa” with no word about what it was made of. Nor would he take it home to his family, for he was waiting, true to her word, for the one who had promised to return.
Then Urvaśī took her own form and, laughing, said: “It is true that, longing for my darśana, you kept your vrata with a steadfast mind. I am Urvaśī. Having tested you, I have decided that you are a ṛshi named Satyatapas. Go to the Śūkarava kshetra, famous as Rūpatīrtha. There siddhi will come to you. Then you will obtain me.” Saying this, she flew up to svarga.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 228
The fruit of Rūpatīrtha
His untruthfulness gone, the ṛshi Satyatapas went to Rūpatīrtha. There he lived devoted to peace, keeping niyamas and vratas, pure.
When he gave up his body, he went to the excellent Gandharva loka and for hundreds of manvantaras enjoyed true bhogas there. Then he was born on earth as a king who delighted his people. He performed many yajñas with full dakshiṇās, gave the kingdom to his sons, and went once more to the Śūkarava kshetra. He died at this Rūpatīrtha, went to Indra loka, and enjoyed bhogas there for hundreds of manvantaras. Coming down from there, he was born in the city of Pratishṭhāna as Purūravas, son of Budha, and gained union with Urvaśī.
Vyāsa closes the account: “In this way the brāhmaṇa named Satyatapas, by worshipping Śrī Mahāvishṇu at Rūpatīrtha, the Śūkarava kshetra, enjoyed bhogas and also attained mukti.”
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 228
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapters 25, 228