Lilavai

SR No.: 002796
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: A N Upadhye
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
Publication Year: 1966
Total Pages: 500
Language: Sanskrit, Hindi, English
Classification: Book_Devnagari & Literature
File Size: 15 MB

Page 85

58
LĪLĀVAI
orthodox Brāhmaṇas, it is said, will not perform any Yajña in Draksärama because it is looked upon as an ill omened place.
The present site of Drāksārāma is some miles away from the river Godavari or any of its branches ; but according to the inscriptions, as well as the Bhimeśvara-purāņamu, it was in the close vicinity of Godavarr which is known to have seven mouths at its confluence and hence called Sapta-Godāvari. It may be noted, however, that now there is near the temple of Bhimeśvara and adjacent to the Eastern Gopura a tank called SaptaGodāvaram into which the seven Sages (rşi), who are credited with the creation of the seven mouths of Godāvari, are supposed to have brought water from their respective rivers underground. The tank gets its watersupply through percolation, and its water rises whenever there is a flood in the river Gautami. It is said that there are traces of the flow of river near Drāksārāma: ten feet below, it is all sand, a river bed. Most of the temples in the South have a tirtha or holy pond near them. The tank SaptaGodāvaram is symbolic of the sanctity of the seven streams of Godavari, because a holy bath in this tank is said to confer on the pious pilgrim in a condensed form all the merit which is to be obtained by a separate bath in each of the seven rivers.
Some scholars suspect Buddhist and Jaina associations with this locality, because it is called an ārāma. Nothing specially Buddhistic is discovered there as yet. In the vicinity some Jaina settlement is said to have existed : there are found still some antiquities, especially images, scattered here and there. It is reported that on the northern side of the temple a figure of Jaina Tīrthakara,', sitting cross-legged, is carved on a stone slab. A late Jaina Pattāvali of the Sena Gaņa associates Samantabhadra with this place in the following verse:
समन्तभद्राः खलु तत्र पट्टे स्थितास्त्रिलिङ्गे विषये सुतीर्थे ।
द्राक्षाभिरामे खलु भीमलिङ्गं विकीर्य चन्द्राभविकासकाराः॥ A vivid and charming account of the place as it existed in the 15th century and its sanctity is to be found in the Telugu Campa called Bhime
1 Perhaps this appears to be the same as one photographed by the Supdt.,
Archaeological Survey, Southern Circle, Fort St. George Madras
(No. C.110). 2 The Jaina Antiquary; Vol. XIII, No. 2, p. 4, verse 17, Arrah 1948. It
appears that the Prabhāvakacarita ( ed. Jinavijayaji, Singhi Jaina Series, 13, Ahmadabad-Calcutta 1940 ) also refers to Bhimeśvara thus (p. 129): gafestgefarase H et etc.