Prabhāsa

Prabhāsa, “the radiant place”

Pāpa has other meanings too: see all meanings of Pāpa. Sūratha has other meanings too: see all meanings of Sūratha. Sumitra has other meanings too: see all meanings of Sumitra.

Prabhāsa is one of the most sacred tīrthas (holy places of pilgrimage) on the western coast of Bhārata. It lies in the Saurāshṭra region of present-day Gujarat, near the town of Somnath, at the place where the river Sarasvatī meets the western ocean. It is the home of the Somanātha Jyotirliṅga, the first and most honoured of the twelve Jyotirliṅgas of Bhagavān Śiva. It is also the place where the Yādava line ended and where Bhagavān Kṛshṇa left this world at the end of the Dvāpara Yuga. The Vāmana Purāṇa tells that here Candra regained his lustre, that Prahlāda worshipped Someśvara here, and that Bhagavān Vāmana abides here as Triṇāciketa, Kapardī and Somaśekhara.

The Agni Purāṇa tells that at the bidding of the devas Śrī Kṛshṇa left his body at Prabhāsa kshetra and was honoured in Indraloka and Brahmaloka. It counts Prabhāsa among the excellent tīrthas of the west, among the best places for śrāddha, and among the twelve tīrthas that destroy all pāpas, calls on it to bathe and protect a king at his abhisheka, and says that at Prabhāsa Bhagavān Vishṇu is to be remembered as Daityasūdana, the destroyer of the daityas.

The Bhāgavata Purāṇa knows Prabhāsa as a great puṇya-kshetra on the ocean, across the sea from Dvārakā, where the Sarasvatī flows west. Śrī Kṛshṇa himself tells the Yādava elders that Candra was freed from the wasting disease of Daksha‘s śāpa as soon as he bathed here. Nārada Maharshi names it among the holiest places, where dharma gives a thousand times its fruit. Here the son of the guru Sāndīpani was lost in the great ocean, and Śrī Kṛshṇa and Balarāma came to the shore to bring him back. Balarāma began and ended his long tīrthayātrā at Prabhāsa. Arjuna came here on his tīrtha-yātrā and heard of Subhadrā‘s intended marriage. Vidura reached Prabhāsa at the end of his wanderings, heard here of the fall of the Kuru vaṃśa, and in the end gave up his body here. And here the Yādavas, sent by Śrī Kṛshṇa, bathed, made great gifts to the brāhmaṇas, and then, deluded by daiva, destroyed one another on the shore, before Balarāma and Śrī Kṛshṇa left the earth.

The Brahma Purāṇa names Prabhāsa-tīrtha among the first of the tīrthas and kshetras of the earth. It tells that Sāndīpani’s son died in the salt ocean at Prabhāsa, and that Śrī Kṛshṇa and Balarāma brought him back from the city of Yama; that Śrī Kṛshṇa, seeing portents, led the Yādavas to Prabhāsa, where they destroyed one another and Balarāma’s nirvāṇa came to pass. In its Gautamī Māhātmya, Bhagavān Śiva tells Gautama that the Sarasvatī is holy where she joins at Prabhāsa; Tvashṭṛ pared away the blazing parts of Sūrya in the presence of Somanātha at the place known as Prabhāsa; and five holy rivers carried the primordial fire born of Pippalāda‘s Kṛtyā to Prabhāsa, where Somanātha, the moon-crested Deveśa (master of the devas), dwells with the devas, and where that fire presides, drinking the waters slowly.

Name and Soma

The name Prabhāsa means “the brilliant” or “the lustrous”. The Varāha Purāṇa calls it one of the most sacred soma-tīrthas, tīrthas linked with Soma, the Moon.

The Purāṇas say the Moon was struck by a curse of Daksha that made him wane little by little. He came to this coast and did tapas (austerity) to Bhagavān Śiva. Bhagavān Śiva appeared and softened the curse, so that the Moon would wax and wane in turn and not shrink away altogether. In thanks, Soma set up a liṅga here, which became Somanātha, “the lord of the Moon”. There Bhagavān Śiva as Somanātha is worshipped without a break.

The Varāha Purāṇa also tells, in Chapter 35, how Soma was restored through the churning of the ocean. Prabhāsa on the western coast is traditionally linked with that restoring of Soma.

Per Bhāgavata Purāṇa, when the evil omens rose in Dvārakā, Śrī Kṛshṇa told the Yādava elders that Prabhāsa-kshetra is a very great puṇya-kshetra (holy place). Candra, lord of the nakshatras, was seized by kshaya-roga (the wasting disease) through the śāpa of Daksha; as soon as he bathed in Prabhāsa-kshetra the disease left him at once, and his kalās (digits) grew again.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 6

Prabhāsa in the Mahābhārata’s Vana Parva

In the Vana Parva, Lomaśa names Prabhāsa among the tīrthas of the western circuit when he tells the Pāṇḍavas of his pilgrimage. He says that those who bathe here and keep the proper rites gain great puṇya (merit).

Gauramukha at Prabhāsa

The nature of the tīrtha

In the Varāha Purāṇa, Chapter 13, the ṛshi Gauramukha settled at Prabhāsa and worshipped Bhagavān Vishṇu there for a long time, after the events at Naimisha. He finally reached moksha here.

Mārkaṇḍeya tells Gauramukha:

“Those who know how to look on tīrthas call the deva here ‘Daitya-saṃhāraka’ (destroyer of daityas). Such is Hari, worshipped here at this Prabhāsa.”

The deva of Prabhāsa is Bhagavān Vishṇu as the destroyer of the daitya forces. It is the same Bhagavān Vishṇu who, as Gauramukha had seen at Naimisha, sent the Sudarśana cakra against the forces of Durjaya.

Arrival and pūjā

After the wonders at Naimisha (the gem, the battle and Bhagavān Vishṇu‘s help), Gauramukha decided to worship Hari at Prabhāsa. Mārkaṇḍeya Mahāmuni came there and confirmed the greatness of the tīrtha.

Gauramukha then kept:

• Twelve years of pitṛ-pūjā (honouring the ancestors), with the full rules of śrāddha taught by Mārkaṇḍeya.
• After that, the Daśāvatāra stotra to Bhagavān Vishṇu (Chapter 15).

The Daśāvatāra stotra

Gauramukha‘s great stotra (hymn of praise) at Prabhāsa is the fullest praise of the avatāras in the Varāha Purāṇa. It covers all ten avatāras in order. It opens by praising Śrī Hari as the great one, Prabhu Hari, who crushes the pride of his enemies. He has an auspicious form, and the knowers of brahman greatly desire him. He dwells in Sūrya, Candra and the Aśvins. He is Ādya and Purātana, the first and the ancient, and the slayer of asuras. Gauramukha says he praises him always.

After praising each of the ten avatāras, the stotra ends with Gauramukha bowing again and again to Purushottama, Bhagavān Vishṇu. He asks to be led on the path to moksha (liberation), and says namaskāra to him.

When the stotra was done, Bhagavān Vishṇu appeared before Gauramukha, holding his cakra and gadā.

Gauramukha’s moksha

Gauramukha saw the Paramātmā with full ātma-jñāna (knowledge of the self). He left his body and merged into the paratattva, the supreme reality: eternal, of the form of brahman, the deva-ātman, free from all vikāra (change). He reached the paramapada, the highest state. The Purāṇa says:

“That ṛshi Gauramukha, having seen the Paramātmā in this way, with unshaken ātma-jñāna, came out of his body. He merged into the imperishable Brahman, the eternal, the deva-ātman, the paratattva free from vikāra.”

The Yādava end at Prabhāsa in the Bhāgavata

The Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, tells that Prabhāsa is where the Yādava line destroyed itself, just before Bhagavān Kṛshṇa‘s mahāprasthāna (great departure).

Bhagavān Kṛshṇa saw terrible signs gathering over Dvārakā: eclipses, earthquakes and other signs of coming ruin. He called the elders of the Yādavas to the Sudharmā sabhā (assembly hall) and told them the time had come to leave. He sent the whole clan, women, children and elders, to Śaṅkhoddāra. He himself led the men to Prabhāsa on the western shore, where the Sarasvatī flows west into the sea.

Śrī Śuka Maharshi tells Parīkshit how it came about. Earlier, when Brahmā came with the devas and prayed to Śrī Kṛshṇa to return to Vaikuṇṭha, Śrī Kṛshṇa answered that the work of the devas was done, and that through the śāpa of the maharshis the end of the Yādava line had begun. Then great evil omens rose in Dvārakā. Śrī Kṛshṇa told the elders that a śāpa that cannot be overcome had come upon their line, and that if they wished to live they must not stay in Dvārakā. “Let us go to Prabhāsa today itself, without delay,” he said. “We too will bathe in that kshetra, offer tarpaṇa (libations of water) to the devatās and the pitṛs, and give excellent brāhmaṇas food of many good qualities. By great gifts given with śraddhā (faith) to worthy brāhmaṇas, gifts that are like seeds bearing great fruit, we shall cross over our pāpas as one crosses the ocean in boats.” The Yādavas yoked horses to their chariots. Seeing this, Uddhava came to Śrī Kṛshṇa and begged to be taken with him to his dhāma.

When the omens came again, in the sky, the mid-region and on the earth, Śrī Kṛshṇa spoke in the Sudharmā sabhā: these omens were banners of the devatā of death, and they must not stay even an hour. The women, children and old people were to go to the kshetra called Śaṅkhoddhāra. “We shall go to Prabhāsa kshetra, where the Sarasvatī flows west. We shall bathe in that Sarasvatī, fast with purity, and with one-pointed mind worship the devatās with snāna (bathing), gandha (sandal paste) and the other upacāras (offerings). We shall have svastivācana (the recitation of blessings) done, and honour the most puṇya-filled brāhmaṇas with gifts of cows, land, gold, cloth, elephants, horses, chariots and houses. This is the best means to destroy what is inauspicious and bring about what is auspicious; the pūjā of devatās, brāhmaṇas and cows is the highest cause of welfare for living beings.” The Yādava elders said “So be it”, crossed the sea in boats, and went on chariots to Prabhāsa.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapters 6, 30

At Prabhāsa the Yādavas bathed, did pūjā, and gave great dāna (gifts) to brāhmaṇas as their last acts of puṇya. They did all that Śrī Kṛshṇa had commanded, with a bhakti beyond all measure, for to the Yādavas he alone was their deva. Then, through the Yogamāyā of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa and the curse of the brāhmaṇas, they drank wine at the shore and lost their wisdom. (The iron pestle of that curse came from a mocking pretence about a pregnant woman.) They turned on one another: fathers and sons, uncles and nephews, brothers and cousins fought and fell. They fought with blades of thorny tuṅga grass that had grown from the powdered remains of the cursed iron pestle. The whole Yādava line destroyed itself at Prabhāsa.

The Bhāgavata names those who fought on the shore. First they fought with bows, swords, spears, maces, slings and lances, striking each other like elephants with their tusks, while the flags of their mounts fluttered: chariots, elephants, donkeys, camels, bulls, buffaloes, men and mules. Pradyumna fought Sāmba; Akrūra fought Bhoja; Aniruddha fought Sātyaki; Subhadra fought Saṅgrāmajit; Gada, Śrī Kṛshṇa’s brother, fought Gada, the son; Sumitra fought Suratha. Niśaṭha, Ulmuka, Sahasrajit, Śatajit, Bhānu and the others too faced one another. The text prints the verse that names the lines:

दाशार्हवृष्ण्यन्धकभोजसात्वता मध्वर्बुदा माथुरशूरसेनाः ।
विसर्जनाः कुकुराः कुन्तयश्च मिथस्ततस्तेऽथ विसृज्य सौहृदम् ॥

dāśārha-vṛshṇy-andhaka-bhoja-sātvatā madhv-arbudā māthura-śūrasenāḥ |
visarjanāḥ kukurāḥ kuntayaś ca mithas tatas te ‘tha visṛjya sauhṛdam ||

Then the Dāśārhas, Vṛshṇis, Andhakas, Bhojas, Sātvatas, Madhus, Visarjanas, Kukuras and Kuntis, and the people of Arbuda, Mathurā and Śūrasena, gave up their friendship and fought one another.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 30

When the arrows were spent and the bows broken, they took handfuls of the thorny grass in their fists, and the grass became clubs equal to the vajra. When Śrī Kṛshṇa sought to stop them they struck at him too, and they took even Balarāma for an enemy. Then Śrī Kṛshṇa too took up the grass as a club and moved through the battle, striking. As fire born of friction in a bamboo thicket burns down the forest, so the anger of the Yādavas, seized by the śāpa of the brāhmaṇas and bewildered by Śrī Kṛshṇa’s māyā, ended all nine of their vaṃśas, and Śrī Kṛshṇa knew that the last of the burden of the earth had been removed.

After this, Balarāma left his body in yoga by the seashore. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa then withdrew to a pippala tree near the shore. He sat there in perfect stillness, and there the last act of his avatāra was done.

Balarāma, on the shore of the ocean, meditated on the Parama Purusha, merged his mind in the Paramātmā and gave up his human form. Seeing this, Śrī Kṛshṇa sat silently on the ground, leaning against an aśvattha tree. He took his four-armed form, shining like a fire without smoke and dispelling the darkness of the directions: dark as a cloud, bearing the Śrīvatsa, in a pair of silk garments, with makara-shaped earrings, crown, armlets, necklaces, the Kaustubha jewel and the vanamālā, his divine weapons serving him in embodied form, his lotus-red left foot resting on his right thigh. The hunter Jara, who had made an arrow from the last piece of iron of the musala, took that foot for the face of a deer and struck it. Seeing the four-armed Purusha, Jara fell at his feet and begged to be slain. Śrī Kṛshṇa said: “Do not fear, Jara. This was my own saṅkalpa. With my leave, go to svarga.” Jara made three pradakshiṇas, bowed, and rose to svarga on a vimāna.

Dāruka, the charioteer, found Śrī Kṛshṇa by the fragrance of the tulasī in his garland, and fell at his feet in tears. As he looked, the chariot with its Garuḍa banner rose into the sky, and the divine weapons of Vishṇu went after it. Śrī Kṛshṇa sent Dāruka back to Dvārakā: the kinsmen were to be told all, the sea would cover the city, and all were to go to Indraprastha, where Arjuna would protect them.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 30

Uddhava’s account to Vidura

Uddhava too tells Vidura of the last days of the Yādavas. Boys of the Yadu and Bhoja vaṃśas, playing in Dvārakā, angered some maharshis, and the maharshis, knowing the wish of Śrī Kṛshṇa, pronounced a śāpa. Some months later the Vṛshṇis, Bhojas, Andhakas and the other Yādavas, deluded by daiva (destiny), mounted their chariots in high spirits and went to Prabhāsa kshetra. There they bathed and offered tarpaṇa to the devas, the pitṛs and the ṛshis, and gave to the brāhmaṇas cows with good marks. Those heroes, who spent their whole life and strength protecting cows and brāhmaṇas, gave gold, silver, beds, costly garments, deer-skins, blankets, palanquins, chariots, elephants, maidens, fertile lands and many kinds of tasty food, making every gift with their minds fixed on Bhagavān Kṛshṇa, as an offering to Īśvara, and then made full prostration to the brāhmaṇas. The chapter ends there, in the middle of the Prabhāsa account.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 3

The Yādava end in the Mausala Parva

The Mausala Parva of the Mahābhārata gives its own account. When the dreadful signs grew over Dvārakā, Kṛshṇa saw that Kāla (Time) had come. He ordered a tīrtha-yātrā festival to Prabhāsa on the seashore. The Vṛshṇis, Andhakas and Bhojas went there with their wives and with plenty of food, drink and liquor, and camped in the pavilions made ready for them.

At Prabhāsa the great drinking feast began. In a quarrel between Sātyaki and Kṛtavarma, the old grievance of the Syamantaka gem was raised, and Satyabhāmā wept before Kṛshṇa. In the rage that followed, Sātyaki cut off Kṛtavarma’s head, and the drunken warriors fell on one another. When Pradyumna and Sātyaki were slain, Kṛshṇa himself took up a handful of eraka reeds. They turned in his hand into an iron muśala (pestle). Every blade of grass that any enraged man grasped became a pestle like it.

So, driven by the curse of the brāhmaṇas and by Kāla, fathers killed sons and sons killed fathers. The whole Yādava host, some fifteen hundred thousand strong, perished at Prabhāsa. The curse of Gāndhārī and the words of the brāhmaṇas led the Yādavas to destroy one another here.

Beside the sea at Prabhāsa, Balarāma withdrew into yoga, and a great white serpent came out of his mouth and entered the ocean. Kṛshṇa composed himself in yoga on the ground, and the hunter Jara struck him in the foot. He rose to his supreme abode. Kṛshṇa had earlier sat in meditation at the foot of a tree.

Arjuna and Kṛshṇa meet at Prabhāsa

During his twelve years of vanavāsa (forest exile), Arjuna came to Prabhāsa after his long pilgrimage through Gaṅgādvāra, Maṇipura and many holy places of the east and south. Word reached Kṛshṇa at Dvārakā that his dear friend was at Prabhāsa, and Kṛshṇa came at once.

They met after years apart, with great joy. They sat together, embraced, and talked at length of everything: Indraprastha, the marriages, the tīrthas Arjuna had visited, and what lay ahead. Kṛshṇa then asked Arjuna to come with him to Dvārakā, and Arjuna agreed. That journey from Prabhāsa to Dvārakā led straight to Arjuna’s first sight of Subhadrā at the Raivataka festival and to all that followed.

Per Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Śuka tells Parīkshit that Arjuna, travelling over the earth on a tīrtha-yātrā, came to Prabhāsa-kshetra. There he heard that Balarāma was about to give Subhadrā in marriage to Duryodhana, and that Śrī Kṛshṇa and the others did not accept it. Wishing to win her, Arjuna went from Prabhāsa to Dvārakā in the guise of a tridaṇḍī sannyāsī.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 86

Prabhāsa elsewhere in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa

Among the holiest places

Nārada Maharshi, teaching Yudhishṭhira the dharma of the gṛhastha, names the holiest places: where a mūrti of Śrī Hari stands, the support of all that moves and does not move, where brāhmaṇas of tapas, śraddhā and dayā gather, where Śrī Hari’s pūjā is held, the Gaṅgā and the rivers, Pushkara, Kurukshetra, Gayā, Prayāga and Pulaha‘s āśrama. Then: “Naimishāraṇya, Phālguna kshetra, Setubandha, Prabhāsa, Dvārakā, Kāśī, Mathurā, Pampā-saras and Bindu-saras are holy places.” One who seeks welfare should go to these places again and again, for dharma done in them gives a thousand times more fruit.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 14

The guru’s son lost in the ocean

When Śrī Kṛshṇa and Balarāma had learned the sixty-four kalās from Sāndīpani in sixty-four days, the guru, after taking counsel with his wife, asked as their gurudakshiṇā for their son, who had fallen into the great ocean at Prabhāsa kshetra and died. Saying “So be it”, the two mahārathas mounted a ratha, reached Prabhāsa and sat a moment on the shore. Samudra, the devatā of the ocean, came to them with articles of pūjā. Śrī Kṛshṇa said: “Here, with a great wave, you swallowed the son of our guru. Give him back at once.” Samudra answered that he had not taken the boy: the rākshasa Pañcajana, of the line of Diti, who moves in the water in the form of a conch, had carried him off. Śrī Kṛshṇa entered the water and slew Pañcajana, but the boy was not in his belly. Taking the conch born from his body, the Pāñcajanya, he went with Balarāma to Saṃyamanī, the city of Yama, and blew it. Yama worshipped them with bhakti and, at Śrī Kṛshṇa’s command, brought the boy, and the two gave him back to their guru.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 45

Balarāma’s tīrthayātrā

When the Kauravas and Pāṇḍavas made ready for war, Balarāma stayed neutral and set out on the pretext of bathing in the holy rivers. His tīrthayātrā began at Prabhāsa kshetra: with brāhmaṇas he bathed there, gave tarpaṇa to the devas, the pitṛs and the maharshis, and satisfied the people with food and gifts. Then he went upstream to the source of the Sarasvatī, and on through Pṛthūdaka, Bindusaras, Naimisha and the tīrthas of the whole land, east and south. At the end, after bathing in Manu tīrtha by the Narmadā, he came back again to Prabhāsa kshetra, and from there, hearing from brāhmaṇas of the kings slain in the war, he went to Kurukshetra to stop the mace-fight of Bhīma and Duryodhana.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapters 78–79

Vidura at Prabhāsa

Vidura, after leaving Hastināpura, made the yātrā alone through all Bhārata, in the dress of an avadhūta, bathing three times a day at every tīrtha, eating only pure food such as fallen fruit, sleeping on the ground and keeping vratas that please Śrī Hari. After some time he reached Prabhāsa tīrtha. By then Dharmarāja, by the grace of Śrī Kṛshṇa, ruled the whole earth. There at Prabhāsa Vidura heard how the Kuru vaṃśa had been destroyed by its own quarrel, as a forest is burned by fire born from the friction of bamboo; grieving, without a word, he went to the bank of the Sarasvatī.

Sūta tells Śaunaka that in the end, when the Pāṇḍavas set out on their last journey, Vidura, master of his senses, fixed his mind on Śrī Kṛshṇa through the power of bhakti, gave up his body at Prabhāsa-kshetra, and went with the pitṛ-devatās to his own city.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 15; Skandha 3, Chapter 1

Prabhāsa in the Nārada Purāṇa

The Nārada Purāṇa, Uttarardha, Chapter 70, gives the Prabhāsa Māhātmya (the account of Prabhāsa’s greatness) as part of the Vasu–Mohinī saṃvāda (conversation). It says that no tīrtha in the three worlds equals Prabhāsa. Bathing here gives bhukti (enjoyment), mukti (liberation) and puṇya. Those who bathe here rival the dwellers in svarga themselves.

Measures and the abode of Viśveśvara Somanātha

Girijāpati Viśveśvara, who is also called Somanātha, lives at Prabhāsa. The sacred kshetra-kuṇḍa (the holy ground) of Prabhāsa is twelve yojanas wide. In its central five-yojana area lies the pīṭhikā, the sacred seat. At the very centre of this pīṭhikā is a spot only the size of a piece of leather (carma-mātra-prādeśa). It is declared more distinguished than even Kailāsa. Bathing at Prabhāsa and worshipping Somanātha gives moksha.

The pilgrim circuit

The chapter describes a long pilgrim circuit of many liṅgas, tīrthas and shrines of devas (devatā-sthāna):

• Arkasthala-tīrtha. Siddheśvara and a thousand other liṅgas are set up here. Whoever bathes with devotion, offers tarpaṇa (water offering) to the pitṛs (ancestors) and the devas, and worships the liṅgas reaches Rudra-loka.
• Agni-tīrtha (on the seashore). Bathing here leads to Agni-loka. Worshipping Kapardīśa with upavāsa (fasting) brings one’s wishes in this life and Śiva-loka after it.
• Fourteen liṅgas in order. Among them are Kedāreśa, Bhīmeśa, Bhairaviśa, Caṇḍeśa, Bhāskareśvara, Aṅgāreśa, Gurv-Īśa, Someśa, Bhṛgujeśvara, Śani, Rāhu and Śikheśa. Each is worshipped one by one. In the end they lead the devotee to Śiva-loka, with the power of both anugraha (favour) and nigraha (restraint).
• Siddheśvara and the five chief liṅgas (Pañcānya). Worshipping these gives siddhi (spiritual power) in this world and the next.
• Śakti-tīrthas. Varārohā, Ajāpālā, Maṅgalā and Laliteśvarī. Worshipped in order, they remove pāpa (sin).
• Lakshmīśvara, Bāḍaveśa, Arghyaśa and Kāmakeśvara. Worshipping these gives Lokeśatva, lordship over the worlds.

Further along the circuit:

• Cakra-tīrtha. Bathing here and doing pūjā of Gaurī gives the vara (boon) one wants.
• Sannihati-tīrtha. It gives its own special sannihati-phala.
• Ādinārāyaṇa. Gives moksha.
• Cakradhara. Gives victory over enemies.
• Sāmbāditya. Cures disease and brings wealth.
• Scores of shrines of Bhagavān Śiva and of Śakti are found all through the circuit, and each gives its own varas.

Hiraṇyā-saṃgama and Kṛshṇa-sāyujya near Nagarāditya

At the Hiraṇyā-saṃgama, bathing and giving a golden chariot to a brāhmaṇa gives akshaya lokas (worlds that never end). Near Nagarāditya, one first worships that form of Bhagavān Sūrya. Then one has darśana of Balarāma, Kṛshṇa and Subhadrā and worships them in the proper way. That person reaches Kṛshṇa-sāyujya, oneness with Bhagavān Kṛshṇa.

Piṅgalā-nadī

Whoever bathes in the Piṅgalā-nadī and with devotion performs śrāddha there for the devas is freed from all future birth: they will not be born again (the text says mārāla janma-na-ndaru). Worshipping Saṃgameśvara on the way also ensures that one has no bad gati (destination after death).

Raivataka and the Dāmodara Gṛha

Among the holy spots of the circuit, the Raivataka hill has many tīrthas where Brahmā, Vishṇu, Maheśvara and all the lokapālas are worshipped, to gain bhukti and mukti. The Dāmodara Gṛha gives supreme happiness to those who have its darśana. At the Prabhāsa-nābhi-sthāna, worshipping Bhagavān Śiva in his Vastrāpatha form gives the bather a state equal to Bhagavān Śiva himself.

Phalaśruti

No tīrtha in the three worlds is equal to Prabhāsa. Those who bathe here vie with the dwellers in svarga. Keeping a written copy of this Prabhāsa Māhātmya in one’s home wards off fear of ghosts, thieves, fire and other dangers. Hearing or reciting this Māhātmya leads to sadgati (a good end).

Prabhāsa in the Vāmana Purāṇa

Nandinī, the gift of Prabhāsa

When Skanda was consecrated as leader of the deva armies, the rivers and the tīrthas each gave him gaṇas and mātṛkās (attendants). Prabhāsa gave him Nandinī.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 31

Prahlāda at Prabhāsa

Pulastya Maharshi tells Nārada of the tīrthayātrā (pilgrimage to holy places) of Prahlāda, the asura devotee of Bhagavān Vishṇu. At Kāliñjara Prahlāda had darśana (sacred sight) of Nīlakaṇṭheśvara and dipped in Nīla tīrtha. From there he went to the incomparable Prabhāsa kshetra on the shore of the ocean. There he bathed at the saṅgama (meeting) of the Sarasvatī and the ocean, and had darśana of Someśvara, the Lokanātha (lord of the worlds).

In this very place Tārānātha, the Moon, lord of the stars, whose kalās (digits) had waned by Daksha‘s śāpa (curse), worshipped Śaṅkara. By the grace of that Kapardī and by the anugraha (favour) of Śrī Vishṇu, he regained his lustre. In such a kshetra Prahlāda worshipped both Devādhidevas, and then went on to Mahālaya.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 57

Vāmana as Triṇāciketa, Kapardī and Somaśekhara

After his upanayana, Bhagavān Vāmana told his guru Bharadvāja Maharshi of the places where his forms abide. Among them he said: “O Brahmarshi! In Prabhāsa kshetra I am there in the forms of Triṇāciketa, Kapardī and Somaśekhara (he who wears the moon as his crest).” These places of his presence, he said, are eternal, ancient and holy; they give dharma, are full of tejas (radiance) and destroy pāpa (sin). Devas, humans and sādhyas who practise darśana, touching, praising and remembering of these forms attain all four purushārthas (aims of life): dharma, artha, kāma and moksha. “This is certain.”

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 63

Prabhāsa in the Agni Purāṇa

Śrī Kṛshṇa leaves the world at Prabhāsa

Agni Deva tells of the last days of the Pāṇḍavas‘ age. Through the Pāṇḍavas, Mahāvishṇu protected dharma, destroyed adharma and removed the burden of the earth. Then, under the pretext of a brāhmaṇa’s śāpa, by the musala, he made the Yādava clan perish, for it too had become a burden on the earth. Śrī Kṛshṇa consecrated Vajra as king and, at the bidding of the devas, gave up his body at Prabhāsa kshetra. He was honoured by the dwellers of svarga in Indraloka and Brahmaloka. Balarāma took the form of Ādiśesha and reached the svarga of Pātāla. That Śrī Hari is imperishable and is meditated on by yogīs. The ocean then covered Dvārakā.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 15

A tīrtha of the west

In the glory of the tīrthas, Agni Deva says that only one whose hands, feet and mind are held in restraint, and who has learning, tapas and good name, gains the full fruit of a tīrtha. After Pushkara he names the tīrthas of the west: Kaṇvāśrama, Koṭitīrtha, the Narmadā and Arbuda; then the Carmaṇvatī, the Sindhu, Somanātha, Prabhāsa, the meeting of the Sarasvatī and the sea, and Sāgara. All these are excellent tīrthas.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 109

Śrāddha at Prabhāsa

In the Śrāddha-kalpa that Kātyāyana Maharshi told the munis, Agni Deva says that śrāddha done in the best tīrthas is akshaya, imperishable. Śrāddha done at Gayā, Prayāga, the Gaṅgā, Kurukshetra, the Narmadā, Śrīparvata, Prabhāsa, Śālagrāma tīrtha, Kāśī, the Godāvarī, Purushottama kshetra and the like is the best.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 117

One of the twelve tīrthas that destroy all pāpas

In the teaching on prāyaścitta (rites that remove pāpa), the Agni Purāṇa names twelve tīrthas, in this order: the Gaṅgā, Gayā, Prayāga, Kāśī, Ayodhyā, Avanti, Kurukshetra, Pushkara, Naimisha, Purushottama, Śālagrāma and Prabhāsa. All these tīrthas destroy all pāpas.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 174

Prabhāsa at a king’s abhisheka

When Pushkara teaches Paraśurāma the mantras for the abhisheka of a king, Prabhāsa is the second of the thirty-four tīrthas called on, with the holy rivers, to perform the king’s abhisheka and protect him: Pushkara, Prabhāsa, Naimishāraṇya, Gayāśīrsha, Brahmaśiras and the rest, through Karavīrāśrama.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 219

Bhagavān Vishṇu as Daityasūdana

Agni Deva gives fifty-five names of Śrī Mahāvishṇu and the place where each is to be remembered. One who does japa of these names gains the fruit of mantra-japa and the imperishable puṇya of pūjā at the tīrthas. The list begins: at Pushkara, Puṇḍarīkāksha, the lotus-eyed; at Gayā, Gadādhara, the bearer of the mace; at Citrakūṭa, Rāghava; and at Prabhāsa, Daityasūdana, the destroyer of the daityas.

One who remembers Bhagavān Vishṇu in this way gains bhukti (enjoyment) and mukti (moksha), and one who does japa of these names gains everything. Śrāddha, dāna (giving), japa and tarpaṇa done at these kshetras are multiplied a crore-fold, and the one who does them becomes one with Brahman after death. One who reads these names, and one who hears them, becomes free of pāpa and attains svarga.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 305

Prabhāsa in the Brahma Purāṇa

Among the first tīrthas of the earth

In Chapter 25, the Sarva-tīrtha-māhātmya, “the glory of all the tīrthas”, the teller first speaks of the inner tīrtha of a pure mind, and then names the tīrthas and kshetras of the earth, more than four hundred of them. Prabhāsa-tīrtha is the eleventh name in that list: after Pushkara, Naimishāraṇya, Prayāga, Dharmāraṇya, Dhenuka, Campakāraṇya, Saindhavāraṇya, Magadhāraṇya, Daṇḍakāraṇya and Gayā, and before Śrī-tīrtha, Kanakhala, Bhṛgutuṅga and Hiraṇyāksha.

The chapter gives one rite for all the tīrthas of the list. One who serves these tīrthas with śraddhā (faith), performs the bath and the other prescribed acts, keeps the fast, is master of the senses, offers tarpaṇa (libations of water) to the devas, the ṛshis and the pitṛs, worships the devatās, and fasts there for three nights, gains distinct and endless fruits, and by them the fruit of the aśvamedha yajña. “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

Sāndīpani’s son and the Pāñcajanya

Rāma and Kṛshṇa knew all knowledge and were pure knowledge itself. Yet, to show the world how a disciple should conduct himself, they went to study the astras with Sāndīpani, who was born in Kāśī and lived in Avantīpura. Serving their guru, they learned the dhanurveda with its secrets and its compendium in sixty-four days, the wonder of all wonders, and Sāndīpani thought: “Candra and Sūrya have come here.” When they asked what they should give as gurudakshiṇā, Sāndīpani, seeing their power by the sight of his tapas, asked for his son, who had died long before in the salt ocean at Prabhāsa tīrtha.

The two took their weapons, went to the ocean and said to Sāgara: “Give us our guru’s son.” The Ocean, with folded hands, answered: “I did not take Sāndīpani’s son. A daitya named Pañcajana, who lives in the form of a conch, carried the boy off. He is in my waters.” Śrī Kṛshṇa entered the waters, slew Pañcajana, and took the excellent conch that had grown from his bones. By its sound the daityas lose their strength, the tejas (radiance) of the devas grows and adharma wanes. Raising that Pāñcajanya, Śrī Hari blew it and went to the city of Yama. He and Balabhadra conquered Yama, took the boy who was suffering the torments of Yama, and gave him back to his father in his human body as before. From there they returned to Mathurā, and its people were filled with boundless joy.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 194

The end of the Yādavas at Prabhāsa

Vyāsa tells the munis how Śrī Kṛshṇa withdrew the Yadu line on the pretext of a brāhmaṇa’s śāpa. After the munis’ śāpa of the musala at Piṇḍāraka, a messenger of the devas came to Śrī Kṛshṇa in private and said that a hundred years had passed since he came down to remove the burden of the earth; if it pleased him, the devas asked him to return to svarga. Śrī Kṛshṇa answered that the destruction of the Yādavas, through whom the earth was still burdened, had already been begun by him, and that he would complete it in seven nights.

Then Śrī Kṛshṇa saw portents in svarga, on the earth and in the sky between, and said at once: “Let us go to Prabhāsa tīrtha.” Uddhava, a great bhāgavata, saw the signs of the Yadu line’s end and asked what he should do. Śrī Kṛshṇa sent him by divine travel to the holy Badarikāśrama on the mountain Gandhamādana, the place of Nara-Nārāyaṇa, to fix his mind on him and attain siddhi there, and told him that the Ocean would cover Dvārakā.

All the Yādavas mounted swift chariots and went with Śrī Kṛshṇa and Balarāma to Prabhāsa. There the Kukuras and the Andhakas took a niyama and then, with Vāsudeva’s leave, drank surā. Having drunk wrongly, they clashed with one another, and the fire of quarrel blazed up and became the cause of the Yādava line’s destruction. Overpowered by daiva, they struck each other with śastras and astras. When the weapons were spent, they seized the eraka grass growing nearby, and as they held it, it became like the vajra. With it Pradyumna, Sāmba, Kṛtavarmā, Sātyaki, Aniruddha, Pṛthu, Vipṛthu, Cāruvarmā, Cāru, Akrūra and the others struck one another most terribly. Śrī Hari held them back, and they, thinking that he had come to help the other side, turned on one another all the more. Then Śrī Kṛshṇa took up a handful of eraka grass. It became a musala fit to slay the Yādavas, and with it he brought the Yādava line to its end, until none was left.

While Dāruka the charioteer watched, the horses carried off the victorious chariot of Śrī Kṛshṇa, who bears the cakra, through the midst of the ocean. Śrī Hari’s divine weapons, the Sudarśana cakra, the Kaumodakī gadā, the Śārṅga bow, the quiver, the Pāñcajanya śaṅkha and the Nandaka sword, went round him in pradakshiṇa and departed by the path of the orb of the sun. In a single moment the Yādava line was destroyed there; of the great heroes only Śrī Kṛshṇa and Dāruka remained.

They went to Balarāma, who sat at the foot of a tree, and saw a great serpent with great hoods come forth from his mouth. Worshipped by siddhas and nāgas, it went to the ocean. Samudra came to meet it bearing arghya, and, worshipped by the great Indras, it entered the waters. Seeing the nirvāṇa of Balarāma, Śrī Kṛshṇa told Dāruka to carry the news to Vasudeva and Ugrasena and to the people of Dvārakā, to say that he too, standing in yoga-samādhi, had left his body, and to bring Arjuna, for the Ocean would cover the city.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 210

Where the Sarasvatī joins

When Gautama brought the Gaṅgā to Brahmagiri and asked Bhagavān Śiva the rules of the tīrtha bath, Śiva told him where the holy rivers give their fruit: the Gaṅgā at Gaṅgādvāra, at Prayāga and where she falls into the ocean; the Narmadā at the mountain Amarakaṇṭaka; the Yamunā where she joins the Gaṅgā at Prayāga; and the Sarasvatī where she joins at Prabhāsa. “But this Gautamī,” Śiva said, “grants moksha everywhere, at my command.”

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 7

Sūrya pared before Somanātha

Brahmā tells Nārada of Ushā, the daughter of Tvashṭṛ and wife of Sūrya, who could not bear her husband’s heat. She left her shadow, Chāyā, in her place and performed tapas in the form of a mare in the land of the Uttara Kurus. Sūrya came to her in the form of a horse and followed her south to the Gautamī, where the Aśvins were born. Then, before all the devas, ṛshis and rivers who had come to see this wonder, Sūrya said to his father-in-law: “O Tvashṭṛ, mount me on the lathe and pare away my blazing parts, to please Ushā, who has performed excellent tapas.” Saying “So be it”, Tvashṭṛ began to cut away the blazing parts of Sūrya in the presence of Somanātha, and that place is known as Prabhāsa.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 19

The primordial fire set at Prabhāsa

Brahmā tells Nārada how the Kṛtyā that came forth from the eyes of Pippalāda, the son of Dadhīci, in the form of the mare Vaḍavā, was at last appeased. Vaḍavā agreed to devour all things only in due order, became a river and joined the Gautamī. The fire that came from her the devas call the primordial fire, most terrible, the first of the elements. The devas sent it to consume the waters of the ocean, but Agni said: “There is water there; how can I go? Only if a virtuous kanyā places me in a golden pot and carries me there shall I go.” The devas asked the virgin Sarasvatī to carry Agni on her head to the ocean. She said that she could not bear him alone, but could carry him quickly if four others helped her. So the devas asked the Gaṅgā, the Yamunā, the Narmadā and the Tapatī in turn.

The five rivers, Sarasvatī with the Gaṅgā, the Yamunā, the Narmadā and the Tapatī, placed Agni in a golden pot, carried it on their heads to the ocean, and set it at Prabhāsa, where Somanātha, Deveśa and Jagadīśa (master of the devas and of the universe), the moon-crested one, dwells together with the devas. That great fire presides over the place, drinking the waters slowly.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 40

Per Bhavishya Purāṇa

In the Uttara Parva of the Bhavishya Purāṇa, Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa tells King Yudhishṭhira that when he and Balarāma had finished their learning at the home of their guru Sandīpani Muni, they asked what they should give as gurudakshiṇā. The guru knew their divine power and said: “My son went to Prabhāsa Kshetra. There some creature killed him in the sea. Bring me that son as gurudakshiṇā.” Śrī Kṛshṇa and Balarāma went to Yamaloka, took the guru’s son from there and offered him to the guru as gurudakshiṇā.

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapters 87–88

Sources

• Varāha Purāṇa, Chapters 13, 15 (Gauramukha at Prabhāsa); Chapter 35 (the restoring of Soma)
• Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 15; Skandha 3, Chapters 1, 3; Skandha 7, Chapter 14; Skandha 10, Chapters 45, 78–79, 86; Skandha 11, Chapters 6, 30–31
• Nārada Purāṇa, Uttarardha, Chapter 70
• Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 31, 57, 63
• Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 15, 109, 117, 174, 219, 305
• Mahābhārata, Vana Parva (Lomaśa’s tīrtha-yātrā)
• Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Chapter 218
• Mahābhārata, Mausala Parva, Chapters 2–4
• General Purāṇic sources (Soma’s curse and the Somanātha liṅga)
• Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapters 87–88
• Brahma Purāṇa, Chapters 25, 194, 210; Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapters 7, 19, 40