Pañcanada
Pañcanada · pañca-nada, “the land of five rivers”
Pañcanada is the land of five rivers. It is rich in cattle and grain. Arjuna halted here with the surviving Vṛshṇi women and elders as he led them from the drowned city of Dvārakā towards Indraprastha. Here, by the decree of Kāla (Time), the mighty Gāṇḍīva bow failed in Arjuna’s hands. The Ābhīra cowherd-robbers carried off many of the Vṛshṇi women. This marked the fading of Arjuna’s own tejas (power). The Brahma Purāṇa tells that Arjuna made a home in Pañcanada for all the Yādava people.
The Vāmana Purāṇa remembers Pañcanada for an earlier age. In its waters the two mighty rākshasa brothers Rambha and Karambha performed tapas for sons; there Indra slew Karambha, and there Agni granted Rambha the vara from which Mahisha was born.
The Agni Purāṇa counts Pañcanada, the five rivers beginning with the Śatadru, among the excellent tīrthas of Bhārata, and names the Pañcanada tīrtha among the tīrthas called upon to bathe and protect a king at his abhisheka.
Place and importance in the account
Pañcanada was a land full of wealth, cattle and grain. Arjuna passed through it as he led the widows, the elders and the children of the Vṛshṇis away from Dvārakā, which the sea had swallowed. He chose a place well supplied with animals and grain and made camp there for the great crowd on its way.
Source: Mahābhārata, Mausala Parva, Chapter 7.
Per Brahma Purāṇa, as Vyāsa tells the munis, when the ocean had covered deserted Dvārakā, all but the house of Śrī Kṛshṇa, Arjuna made a home for all the Yādava people in the Pañcanada country, rich in grain and wealth. Then, by the power of Kali, greed rose among men, and the Ābhīras, seeing Arjuna alone with his bow, fell on him and carried off the women of the Vṛshṇi and Andhaka families.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 212
The failing of the Gāṇḍīva
At Pañcanada, bands of Ābhīra cowherd robbers saw that one archer was leading a host of the old and the young. Greed seized them, and they fell on the caravan with clubs, to carry off the women and the wealth. Arjuna warned them and drew his bow, but a terrible sign overtook him. He could hardly string the divine Gāṇḍīva. The celestial weapons would not come to his memory. His arrows, which had never run out, were used up in a moment.
The Vṛshṇi warriors, mounted on elephants, horses and chariots, could not turn the robbers back. Before Arjuna’s very eyes the Mleccha bands carried away many noble women of the Vṛshṇis and Andhakas, and some fled of their own will.
Arjuna saw this terrible turn. He knew that the strength of his arm had become useless and that his great astras (divine weapons) were of no use. He was filled with shame and grief, and he understood it to be the working of destiny. He gathered those who were left and led them on to Kurukshetra.
Source: Mahābhārata, Mausala Parva, Chapter 7.
Why Pañcanada is remembered
Pañcanada is remembered as the place where the unbeaten Gāṇḍīva and Arjuna‘s arm were overcome. No greater warrior did this. Kāla itself did it. As Vyāsa would teach later, strength, tejas and fortune rise and pass away according to Time. At the set hour even the mightiest bow of the age lost its power, and the same weapons would come back only when their season came again.
Source: Mahābhārata, Mausala Parva, Chapter 7.
Per Vāmana Purāṇa
Rambha and Karambha in the waters of Pañcanada
Nārada Maharshi asked Pulastya Maharshi who Kātyāyanī was, who slew the daitya Mahisha, and in what line Mahisha was born. Pulastya answered that Kātyāyanī is Durgā, who grants every vara, and began an account of ancient times that takes away pāpa (sin).
In former times there were two rākshasas of great strength who shook the whole world, Rambha and Karambha. They had no sons, and to obtain sons they plunged into the waters of Pañcanada, the five rivers, and performed tapas (austerity) there for many years. Karambha stood in the middle of the water and Rambha in the middle of fire, and their tapas was directed to the Mālavaṭa yaksha.
While Karambha was under the water, Indra took the form of a makara (crocodile), seized him by the legs, dragged him away and killed him. Angered by his brother’s death, Rambha resolved to cut off his own head and offer it into the fire. Holding his hair in one hand and a gleaming sword in the other, he was about to strike when Agni restrained him: “Chief of the rākshasas, it is not good to kill oneself. The fault of killing oneself is more terrible than that of killing another, and hard to cross. Tell me what you wish; I can fulfil it.”
Rambha asked for a son more radiant than Agni himself, not to be conquered by the devas, not to be slain by men or daityas, strong as Vāyu, able to take any form at will, skilled in every astra, and able to conquer the three worlds. Agni said: “Surely it will be so. You will beget such a son on whatever woman you love.” By Agni’s word Rambha went to the Mālavaṭa yaksha, and there the son of that vara was born to him: Mahisha, whom Devī Kātyāyanī later slew.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 18.
Pañcanada in the Agni Purāṇa
An excellent tīrtha
Agni Deva, telling the glory of the tīrthas, which grant bhukti (enjoyment) and mukti (moksha), says that only one whose hands, feet and mind are restrained, and who has vidyā, tapas and good name, gains the full fruit of a tīrtha. Going through the tīrthas of Bhārata, he names Piṇḍāraka, Dvārakā and the Gomatī as tīrthas that grant every siddhi, and then says that Bhūmitīrtha, the Brahmatuṅga tīrtha and Pañcanada, the five rivers beginning with the Śatadru, are also excellent.
Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 109
At the abhisheka of a king
Pushkara, teaching Paraśurāma the mantras for the abhisheka (consecration bath) of a king, gives a blessing in which the tīrthas and holy rivers are called upon: “May these tīrthas and holy rivers perform your abhisheka and protect you.” Among the tīrthas named are Pushkara, Prabhāsa, Naimishāraṇya, Gayāśīrsha, the Brahmaśiras tīrtha, Uttaramānasa, Kolodaka, Nandikuṇḍa and the Pañcanada tīrtha, with Bhṛgutīrtha, Amarakaṇṭaka, Gaṅgādvāra, Kedāra, Vārāṇasī, Badarikāśrama, Dvārakā, Śālagrāma and the rest; and among the rivers, the Gaṅgā, the Sarasvatī, the Śatadru, the Vipāśā, the Vitastā, the Candrabhāgā and many others.
Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 219
Per Bhavishya Purāṇa
Sumantu Muni tells that after the niryāṇa of Śrī Kṛshṇa, while Arjuna looked on helplessly, the women were carried off by bandit thieves of the Pañcanada region.
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapter 73
Sources
- Mahābhārata, Mausala Parva, Chapter 7
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 18
- Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 109, 219
- Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapter 73
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 212