Indian Antiquary Vol 33

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 94

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(MAROH, 1904.
THE TULA-KAVERI-MAHATMYA.
BY G. E. SUBRAMIAH PANTULU. • (Continued from Vol. XXXI. p. 446.)
CHAPTER III. O KING! I shall narrate to you in detail the glory of the Tula Kávéri, which be pleased to hear with wrapt attention. Those who bathe in its waters will be purged of all sin and would attain riches of all sorts. Those who commit matricide, patricide, cow-killing, abortion, adultery with a guru's wife and other similar horrible deeds, those who do not study the Vedas, those who do not pursue a time-honored correct custom, liquor-drinkers, eaters of food not consecrated to the deity or used by gaeats, non-performers of agnihotra, aupásana, Daiavadeda and other similar sacrificial rites, and other doers of various sorts of sinful deeds, would be adored in the Brahmaloka by bathing but once in the sacred waters of the Kaveri. Those who cannot bathe in its icy-cold waters, can do so at least by boiling it. And those who cannot do even that must at least hear the Tuld-Kav&ri-Mahatmya. He who cannot do even that must amply remunerate the reader. If poor, he must with a good heart oxtol the reader and make others reward him. As women, Sudras, boys, and lower orders have no Vedic rites, they must rise very early in the morning and must do a thuanim bath. He will be blessed with long life who, after bathing at dawn in the Kávêri, offers libations to the devas, rishis and pitris with sesamum seeds and rice. Süras, Naras, Uragas, Yakshas, Kimparushas, Rudrag, Adityas, Maruts and others would be well pleased with him. Everyone must hear the Kaveri Mahatmya as far as he is able, after prostrating to Sarya, the sun-god, the witness of all the worlds. He would become Váchaspati, at whose house a manuscript of the Mahatmya is kept and worshipped. If a Mahatmya kóba is reserved for a man (Brahman) of letters, he would be rid of all sin and would attain Vaikuntha.
O King! I shall narrate the charities that can be offered in the month. Whoever with a good heart offers libations to men, dévas, rishis and pitris, and feeds Brahmaps with things of the season, will enjoy all temporal happiness and will be adored in Brahmaloka. Whoever in the month of Tulå keeps lights of ghi or oil before Hari and Hara will go to Saryalóka and thence come back to the world as a jñáni. Whoever offers a cloth to a poor Brahman will be blessed with long life and prosperity, and finally attain Chandraloka. Whoever, while bathing in the Kivêrt in the month of Tula, bestows on a poverty-stricken, wayfaring, intelligent Brahman with a large family, a gift of * plot of ground or a house, will enjoy all sorts of terrestrial comforts and then the comforts of Brahmaloka, and then come back to earth as a king. Whoever gives money or grain to the poor will become the friend of Kubêra, and will be blessed with long life. He who gives honey in the month of Tula will have plenty of children, thongh he be barren at present. Whoever gives a pair of oxen to a poor Brahmaş agriculturist will enjoy all the pleasures of Golôka, and will regenerate on carth as king. Whoever gives a cow with a calf, will be blessed with children, will become great, will be rid of the three sorts of loans, will reach the world of pitris, and his family will live long. A giver of a buffalo has no reason to fear untimely death and his family will live for one hundred years. A giver of grain to a poor Brâhman, will live in peace and plenty and be blessed with offspring. He would then live with an excellent woman for the period of fourteen Indras, and then become a land owner on the Earth. Kalt will not live in the house of a man who offers rice to a poor man. Rambhi's (an angelie woman) breasts will be sucked by the man who gives Rambhậphala (plantain-fruits) as charity; and her lips by the bestower of cocoaunts and pánsupdri. The giver of campbor, sandal, musk and other scents to a Brabman, will enjoy the company of apsardsas in Svarga and then regenerate on earth as lord paramount. The bestower of cow's milk, cow's ghi, cow's curd will have cattle and children in plenty, and will be blessed with long life. The offerer of myrabolan powder will become a metaphysician and an excellent theist. Whoever in the month of Tulâ gives sesamum to a Brahman as an oblation to the pitris, will attain the same position as one