Vanamaṇi

Vanamaṇi · vana-maṇi, “the jewel of the forest”

Vanamaṇi is a holy tīrtha named in Chapter 25 of the Brahma Purāṇa, the Sarva-tīrtha-māhātmya, “the glory of all the tīrthas”, in its list of the tīrthas and kshetras of the earth. The brāhmaṇas asked the teller, “O knower of dharma, how many tīrthas and kshetras of puṇya are there on the earth? Tell us,” and in his answer he named more than four hundred, beginning with Pushkara. Whoever serves the tīrthas of this list with faith and the prescribed rite gains endless fruits and the fruit of an aśvamedha.

In the list of tīrthas

It comes in the middle of the list, after Manas-tīrtha, Kārupāvana and Saugandhika, and before Sarasvatī, Īśāna and Pravara. The text gives no location or account of its own for it.

The inner tīrtha

Before he named the tīrthas, the teller said: 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 and show the path to svarga. If the inner faculty is corrupt, no number of baths in tīrthas makes it pure, as an unclean toddy pot is not made pure though washed a hundred times. Wherever a person lives with the senses restrained, that very place is for him Kurukshetra, Prayāga and Pushkara.

The rite and the 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 gains distinct and endless fruits, and by them the fruit of the aśvamedha yāga. “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

Sources

• Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 25