Kapālamocana Tīrtha (Purushottama Kshetra)

Kapālamocana Tīrtha is a sacred place in or near Purushottama Kshetra in Utkala, on the eastern coast. The Brahma Mahā Purāṇa records two events here by which pāpa (sin) was undone. First, Indra’s brahmahatyā (the pāpa of killing a brāhmaṇa) was washed away here, after he killed Vṛtra. Second, Nārada Mahārshi entered the funeral fire here, in his māyā experience as the woman Suśīlā, and was restored to his own form. The neighbouring Sitoda Tīrtha is also made holy by this account. This tīrtha is not the same as the Kapālamocana Tīrtha in Vārāṇasī.

Indra’s brahmahatyā undone

Indra killed the asura Vṛtra, who was also a brāhmaṇa, born of Tvashṭā. This made the killing a brahmahatyā, and Indra was seized by the terrible pāpa of killing a brāhmaṇa. Its weight drove him into exile and near madness. The Brahma Mahā Purāṇa records that Kapālamocana Tīrtha in the Purushottama region is one of the sacred places where this brahmahatyā was cleansed. This shows the great power of the tīrtha to destroy pāpa.

The name Kapālamocana means “release from the burden of the skull”: mokshana (release) from the kapāla (skull) (Brahma Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 229).

Nārada and Suśīlā

In the account of Nārada and Suśīlā in Chapter 229 of the Brahma Purāṇa, Bhagavān Vishṇu showed his māyā by turning Nārada into the woman Suśīlā. She lived through marriage, children and grandchildren, the deaths of her sons in war, and grief. In her sorrow Suśīlā entered the funeral pyre of her slain sons. The fire became water, and Nārada came out as himself.

Bhagavān Vishṇu then told Nārada that the place where Suśīlā entered the fire and was freed from māyā would become the sacred tīrtha called Kapālamocana. The Sitoda Tīrtha beside it received its holiness through the same event (Brahma Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 229).

The Kapālamocana liṅga in Purushottama Kshetra

The Purushottama Kshetra Māhātmya of the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa (Chapter 4) lists the eight Śiva-liṅgas inside the sacred boundary of the kshetra. The Kapālamocana liṅga is one of them. So a Śaiva presence stands within this Vaishṇava kshetra (Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Purushottama Kshetra Māhātmya, Chapter 4).

Not the Kapālamocana of Vārāṇasī

Two great sacred places carry the name Kapālamocana.

  1. Kapālamocana Tīrtha in Vārāṇasī. Here the kapāla (skull) of Bhagavān Brahmā fell from the palm of Bhagavān Śiva when he entered the city. This ended his brahmahatyā, which came from cutting off Brahmā’s fifth head. The Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa describes it.
  2. Kapālamocana Tīrtha in Purushottama Kshetra (this place). Here Indra’s brahmahatyā, from killing Vṛtra, was undone, and Nārada as Suśīlā was freed from the māyā of Bhagavān Vishṇu. The Brahma Mahā Purāṇa describes it, and the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa refers to it.

Both names carry the same meaning, “release from the burden of the skull” of killing a brāhmaṇa. The events and the places are different (Brahma Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 229; Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 3).

Sources

  • Brahma Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 229
  • Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Purushottama Kshetra Māhātmya, Chapter 4
  • Vāmana Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 3