Purushottama Kshetra

Purushottama Kshetra is also called Nīlācala, Jagannātha Purī and Śrī Kshetra. It lies on the eastern shore of Bhārata, at the edge of the great ocean, in the land of Utkala. It is the most sacred of all Vaishṇava tīrthas. It is the eternal home of Bhagavān Vishṇu in his dāru-mūrti (wooden image) form as Jagannātha.

The Skanda Mahā Purāṇa calls it a mukti-kshetra (field of liberation) of the highest kind. Even without meaning to, a person who touches its ground, its sea water, or the shadow of the ratha (chariot) of Bhagavān Jagannātha gains moksha (liberation). The kshetra holds Nīlācala hill, the great ocean (Tīrtharāja) at its foot, the Indradyumna Sarovara, the Mārkaṇḍeya-vaṭa, and a network of sacred liṅgas, śaktis and tīrthas.

The Nārada Mahā Purāṇa gives ten chapters of its Uttarārdha (Chapters 52–61) to the māhātmya (greatness) of this kshetra. This is the longest treatment of any single tīrtha in the Uttarārdha. It places Purushottama Kshetra first among all kshetras.

Names and identity

The Purāṇa gives the kshetra several names:

• Purushottama Kshetra: named for Bhagavān Vishṇu as Purushottama, the Supreme Purusha, beyond both the kshara (perishable) and the akshara (imperishable).
• Nīlācala, Nīlagiri and Nīlādri: named for the blue hill (nīla is blue, acala is mountain) on which the prāsāda stands.
• Śrī Kshetra: the field of Śrī (Lakshmī). It shows that Bhagavān Vishṇu and his śakti are never apart here.
• Jagannātha Purī: the city of Jagannātha, the master of the universe.

(Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Purushottama Kshetra Māhātmya, Chapter 1)

Where it lies, in the Nārada Mahā Purāṇa

The Nārada Mahā Purāṇa says that Purushottama Kshetra lies on the northern shore of the southern sea (the Bay of Bengal), within the land called Utkala. It describes the kshetra as:

• Ten yojanas wide (daśa-yojana-kshetra): it runs ten yojanas (a distance measure) from the sea northward to the Virajā river.
• Covered with pure sand (vālukā-kīrṇa): the whole kshetra is sandy, clean and sacred.
• Boundless in holiness: all sacred places and all the tīrthas of the Purāṇas can be found within it.

(Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarārdha, Chapter 52)

Sacred geography in the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa

Extent of the kshetra

The kshetra reaches five krośas into the ocean from the shore and two krośas on land (the shore itself). So the Tīrtharāja, the ocean, is itself part of the sacred kshetra. Bathing in it equals bathing in all tīrthas at once. (Chapter 3)

The text places the kshetra on Nīlagiri (Nīlācala hill), which it describes as ten yojanas wide. A kalpa-vṛksha (wish-fulfilling tree) stands within the kshetra. (Chapter 1)

Nīlācala hill

The sacred hill rises from the coastal plain. Its top is the home of Bhagavān Vishṇu. The prāsāda of Jagannātha, built by Indradyumna, stands at its peak. Bhagavān Narasiṃha in his ugra form is also enshrined on the hill. The hill is the body of Bhagavān Vishṇu, and the whole kshetra is his śarīra (body). (Chapters 1, 4, 15)

Śaṅkha-parvata

Within the kshetra there is a hill shaped like a śaṅkha (conch shell), the Śaṅkha-parvata. Because it lies so near the ocean, the whole area echoes with the sacred conch-sound of Bhagavān Vishṇu. (Chapter 4)

Rohiṇī Kuṇḍa

The Rohiṇī Kuṇḍa is one of the holiest waters in the kshetra. Here Viśvāvasu, the Śabara devotee, did pūjā to the Nīla Mādhava form of Bhagavān Vishṇu for ages. Vidyāpati was taken here to see Nīla Mādhava. The kuṇḍa (pool) keeps the memory of the first worship at this kshetra, before Indradyumna. (Chapter 8)

The Tīrtharāja, the ocean at Purushottama

The eastern ocean (Mahāsāgara) at the foot of Nīlācala is called the Tīrtharāja, the king of all tīrthas. The Purāṇa says:

• One bath in it destroys the pāpa (sin) of ten million lifetimes.
• A family member who bathes here cleanses the pāpa of the whole family line.
• Pāpa done at other tīrthas is destroyed at the sea-shore. Pāpa done at the sea-shore is destroyed by a bath in the sea.
• A single sea-bath destroys even brahma-hatyā (the killing of a brahmin), go-hatyā (the killing of a cow) and the five mahāpātakas (great pāpas).
• One sea-bath equals the puṇya (merit) of one crore (ten million) kṛshṇā-dānas (gifts of black cows).

(Chapter 30)

Indradyumna Sarovara

The Indradyumna Sarovara is the sacred lake made by the avabhṛtha-snāna (final ritual bath) waters of the thousand Aśvamedha yajñas that king Indradyumna performed. It lies near Nīlācala, south of the Narasiṃha kshetra. The text says that Bhagavān Jagannātha himself comes to stay at this lake for seven days during the Guṇḍicā Yātrā. All tīrthas come together here during the Mahāvedī Mahotsava. (Chapters 31, 34)

The Mārkaṇḍeya-vaṭa

The ancient vaṭa-vṛksha (sacred banyan tree) in the kshetra is the same vaṭa-patra (banyan leaf) on which Bhagavān Vishṇu rested as Bāla Nārāyaṇa during the mahāpralaya (great dissolution) that Mārkaṇḍeya saw. Its sight alone destroys the pāpa of one hundred crore lifetimes. To walk around it while saying the prescribed mantra brings moksha. The tree will stand until kalpānta (the end of the cosmic age). (Chapter 30)

Kapālamocana Liṅga

The Kapālamocana Śiva-liṅga in the kshetra is among the holiest of the Śaiva shrines within Purushottama. A bath at this spot, joined with darśana of Bhagavān Śiva here, gives the fruit of the Rājasūya and Aśvamedha yajñas. (Chapter 4)

Yameśvara

A Śiva-liṅga called Yameśvara was set up in the kshetra after Yama met Lakshmī here. The liṅga stands for Yama’s bowing to the māhātmya of the kshetra. (Chapter 3)

Vimalā Śakti

Vimalā Devī is the great śakti enshrined within the grounds of the Jagannātha prāsāda. She is the presiding devī of the kshetra, one of its eight great śaktis, and a śakti-pīṭha of the highest order. (Chapter 4)

Eight śaktis and eight Śiva-liṅgas

The text lists eight śaktis and eight Śiva-liṅgas that make up the protecting sacred pattern of the kshetra. They are set in the eight directions and form a maṇḍala (circle) of protection around Nīlācala. (Chapter 4)

Guṇḍicā Maṇḍapa

The Guṇḍicā Maṇḍapa is the temporary home of Bhagavān Jagannātha during the nine-day Ratha Yātrā. It lies near the Indradyumna Sarovara, at about the length of the ratha route from Nīlācala. The yajña-bhūmi (sacrifice ground) where Indradyumna performed the thousand Aśvamedhas is the site of this maṇḍapa. (Chapter 29)

Sarvadeva-sannidhi: the presence of all devas

In its sacred geography the kshetra is Vaishṇava, Śaiva and Śākta together. Bhagavān Vishṇu is Purushottama at its centre. Bhagavān Śiva appears as Kapālamocana, Yameśvara, Kapoteśvara and Bilveśvara. Vimalā Devī is the great śakti. The text says that all tīrthas, all devas and all sacred rivers come together at Purushottama Kshetra at the time of the Jyeshṭhā Pañcaka Vrata and the Mahāvedī Mahotsava. (Chapter 32)

The liberation of the crow

The Skanda Purāṇa tells of an event that Brahmā himself saw, and that shows the nature of the kshetra. A crow (kāka), a bird linked with tamas and the lower worlds, gained instant moksha only by touching the sacred ground of the kshetra. This alarmed Yama, who came to protest. Lakshmī told him that inside Purushottama Kshetra the power of Yama over death and birth is set aside. It is a place of ready moksha, where even unknowing contact with the divine gives liberation. (Chapter 2)

The text adds:

• Pāpa done at other tīrthas is destroyed at the kshetra. Pāpa done at the kshetra is destroyed at the sea-shore.
• The dust of the ratha, when it touches a person, destroys brahma-hatyā.
• Even a non-believer who watches the Ratha Yātrā out of mere curiosity grows in faith and gains moksha.

How the kshetra was founded

The Purāṇa traces the present prāsāda and its worship to king Indradyumna of the Sūryavaṃśa (solar line). Yet the holiness of the kshetra is from the beginning. The Purāṇa says that Brahmā himself did pūjā here at the start of his present kalpa (in the second parārdha). Viśvāvasu the Śabara was already worshipping the Nīla Mādhava form before Indradyumna’s time. The dāru-mūrti itself had been floating in the ocean since the start of creation, having fallen from the body of Bhagavān Vishṇu, and it waited to be taken out by Indradyumna. (Chapters 23, 29)

The Purāṇa also says that in the Dvāpara Yuga of the twenty-seventh mahāyuga of the Vaivasvata Manvantara, Kṛshṇa and Arjuna themselves came to this kshetra, stayed three days, and did pūjā to Madhusūdana. (Chapter 31)

The yearly cycle of festivals

The kshetra is built around a great yearly cycle of festivals:

(Chapters 29, 30, 32, 33, 36)

Relation to Brahmaloka

The Purāṇa tells of a wonderful bond between Purushottama Kshetra and Brahmaloka (Satyaloka). Indradyumna spent what seemed a short time in Brahmā’s assembly, listening to divine music. When he came back, a whole manvantara (seventy-one mahāyugas) had passed on earth. Yet the prāsāda he had built stood whole, kept safe through cosmic time by the grace of Bhagavān Jagannātha himself.

Brahmā said that the Vaishṇava Kṛtayuga begins with the Svāroroci Manvantara. He also said that the dāru-mūrti will stay at this kshetra for the whole of Brahmā’s second parārdha. (Chapters 22, 23, 28, 29)

Bhagavān Hari as Purushottama

In the Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Bhagavān Śrī Hari lives in this kshetra in his form as Purushottama, the supreme Person, the best among all Purushas. In this kshetra Hari is the absolute principle of all existence, the presiding deva of the most sacred place in Bhārata.

The Purāṇa tells that all the devas, led by Brahmā and Śiva, came to this kshetra and did tapas and pūjā. Brahmā himself performed a great yajña here. So the kshetra is made holy by the presence of the whole assembly of devas. (Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarārdha, Chapters 53–58)

Purushottama Kshetra is the best of all kshetras

The Uttarārdha shows the greatness of Purushottama Kshetra through a long series of comparisons:

“As the moon is supreme among stars, as the ocean is supreme among lakes, so Purushottama Kshetra is supreme among all tīrthas.”

It goes on: as fire is first among the Vasus, as Śaṅkara among the Rudras, as the brahmin among the varṇas, as Garuḍa among birds, as Skanda among commanders, as Kapila among siddhas, as Airāvata among elephants, as Bhṛgu among maharshis, as Uccaiḥśravas among horses, as Śukra among kavis (poets), as Vyāsa among munis, as Kubera among yaksha-rākshasas, as manas (the mind) among the senses, as bhūmi (earth) among the bhūtas (elements), as the Aśvattha among trees, as vāyu (wind) among moving things, as Arundhatī among women, as the vajra among weapons, as the letter A (akāra) among all letters, as Gāyatrī among chandas (metres), as the head (śiras) among all limbs, as moksha-vidyā among all vidyās (kinds of knowledge), as the king among all men, as Kāmadhenu among cows, as gold (suvarṇa) among metals, as Vāsuki among serpents, so is Purushottama Kshetra among all tīrthas. (Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarārdha, Chapter 52)

The Virajā river

The sacred Virajā river flows through Purushottama Kshetra. The Purāṇa tells how she was born. Virajā came out of the nābhi-sveda (sweat of the navel) of Bhagavān Śrī Hari, so she is the river born of the body of Bhagavān Vishṇu himself. Bathing in the Virajā equals bathing in all tīrthas together. She flows from the north of the kshetra and makes a border between the ordinary world and the sacred ground of Purushottama. (Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarārdha, Chapters 52–53)

Merit of the kshetra

The Uttarārdha lists the phala (fruit) of each kind of dealing with this kshetra:

• Darśana (seeing the kshetra): destroys the pāpa gathered over many births, and equals seeing Bhagavān Vishṇu himself.
• Snāna (bathing in the sea at the kshetra): greater than a thousand Aśvamedhas.
• Piṇḍadāna (offering to the ancestors): gives the pitṛs (ancestors) Brahmaloka.
• Death in the kshetra (dying within the ten yojanas): goes straight to Vishṇuloka, with no need of any further sādhana (practice).
• Even animals that die here: gain a divine birth in the next life.
• Even a grain of sand from this kshetra: cleanses one of all pāpa.

(Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarārdha, Chapters 55–61)

Creation at the kshetra

In Chapter 58, the Nārada Mahā Purāṇa speaks of the rise of the brahmāṇḍa (the universe, Brahmā’s egg) in connection with this kshetra. It describes the kshetra as the point from which cosmic creation came out, the nābhi-sthāna (navel-place) of the universe. (Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarārdha, Chapter 58)

Abhisheka and the merit of the yātrā

Chapter 60 describes the abhisheka (ritual bath of the mūrti) at Purushottama, an act of the highest merit. The last chapter (61) sums up the phala of the whole kshetra-yātrā (pilgrimage). Those who complete the pilgrimage with the right mind, bathe in the sea, take darśana of Purushottama, and offer piṇḍa to their ancestors at the Virajā are freed from all bonds of karma and rise to Vishṇuloka. (Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarārdha, Chapters 60–61)

Sources

• Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Purushottama Kshetra Māhātmya, Chapters 1–37 and beyond (cited here: Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 15, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36)
• Nārada Mahā Purāṇa, Uttarārdha, Chapters 52–61