175 - The Prowess of Krishnaganga and Kalinjara

Varaha said:

1. O fair one, now listen to the prowess of Krishnaganga in river Yamuna. 

2. Sage Krishnadvaipayana (Vyasa) used to bathe here thinking of Ganga and do his daily routine.

3. Krishnaganga is between the tirthas Soma and Vaikuntha. In this place in Mathura, Vyasa performed penance.

4-5. In this hermitage where there were many other great sages also, many sages used to go to perform Chaturmasya and also many scholars deep in the knowledge of Vedas to clear their doubts.

6. Vyasa used to clear their doubts by citing the relevant passages (from scripture).

7. In that place Shiva is installed with the name Kalinjara, the very sight of whom confers the merit of Krishnaganga.

8. Vyasa lived there for twelve years free from all attachment, eating but once a fortnight and that too fruit in the new moon and full moon days.

 9. He then went to Badari in Himalaya and entered into dhyanayoga and became endowed with the knowledge of the past, present and future.

10. The greatness of this tirtha was known through intuition by a Brahmin of the Panchala country.  

11-12. His name was Vasu, but being stricken by poverty, he proceeded with his wife to the south and settled in a town on the right bank of Shivanadi.

13. While living there pursuing his Brahmanic way of life, five sons and a daughter were born to him.

14. In due course, the daughter was given in marriage to a   Brahmin with the necessary grain and wealth, but he passed away.

15. She then collected his bones and went to Mathura, having known, by hearing the Puranas, that one whose bones are put in the Ardhachandra tirtha gets a permanent place in heaven.

  16. She went to Mathura undertaking a pilgrimage and following a group of traders.

17. The youngest of the Brahmin’s children thus became a young widow.

18. She was fair-complexioned, had wellformed limbs and curly black hair. Her thighs were stout and like the stem of the plantain.

19. Her fingers were close together and so too the toes and her nails rosy, her navel right-whirled and the belly had the three folds.

20. Her belly was small and even and breasts well rounded and raised. Her neck was conch-like, mouth tight, teeth sparkling and the lips and chin attractive.

21. Her eyes and brows were beautiful, speech extremely sweet. Her entire body was well proportioned. She bore the significant name Tilottama.

22. Whoever was looked at by her, became dumbfounded by her beauty as if drawn in a picture.

23. As she was spending her days bathing in the tirtha once she came to be seen by a group of courtesans.

24. The king of Kanyakubja, an upholder of Kshatriya dharma, had constructed a permanent inn near the Shiva temple Devagarteshvara.

 25. He had endowed it with a lot of wealth and entertainments with music and instruments as in Indra’s abode.

26. Repeatedly induced by these courtesans attached to this temple (for music and dancing), she took to music and dancing and gradually fell into their way of life.

27. In a short time, the virtuous woman became surrounded by the vicious.

28. As the consort of god, she began to enjoy with all those that came to her.