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[ Holy Åbu (1) Artha Tirtha, i.e., centres of trade and industry on the banks or confluence of rivers. --
(2) Dharma Tirtha, i.e., places noted for men of learning and piety where inquirers of Truth congregate in large numbers.
(3) Kāma Tirtha, i.e., places where men of worldly desires enjoyed life ip-full luxury that riches could bestow.
(4) Moksha Tirtha, i.e., secluded spots amongst natural surroundings, fit for meditation. More often all or more than one of the above factors make a place famous as a place of pilgrimage. Such places got the designation of Mahāpurī or metropolitan centres, like Vārāṇasī, Mathurā, Kāñchīpurī, and Avantī, where the demands of Artha, Dharma, Kāma and Moksha could be easily met.
The Tirthas served an essential purpose in the scheme of " land-taking.” They were the first settlements of the original ancestors. The Path-finders or pioneers of civilization, during the course of their colonising, established Tirthas as the primeval centres of population. Such places have a hoary antiquity, they are associated with the name of one or more of those Řşhis, being sanctified by some religious or spiritual act like Yajña or Tapas. Such holy places cover the entire country, from the snows of Amaranātha to the waves of the sea at Dvārkā, Rāmeshvaram, or Purī, or from Hingulā in Baluchistan to Kāmākşhī in Assam. Devotees of all religions have participated in thus glorifying the Motherland. Indeed, each tried to build a complete picture of the motherland in terms of its Tirthas. It was an ever expanding process, full of vitality, backed by the religious aspiration of successive generations. For example, the Buddhists, apart from the strictly his. torical itenerary of the Buddha, created a fiction that he travelled from Magadha to distant Gandhāra, nay even to
