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Site: Location and Importance
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others because of their sparkling waters and others because of the association or habitation of saintly people" (Bhardwaj 1973: 84).
Though in the pre-Mahabharata period, some places were considered more sacred than the others, they were not 'tirthas', as understood in the later period, as places to be visited for gaining religious merit. The term 'tirtha' literally means a 'crossing place' or 'ford', where one may cross over to the far shore of a river or to the far shore of heaven (Eck 1980: 323). As shown by Eck, the word has developed from meaning crossing back and forth between earth and heaven in Vedic literature, to spiritual internal crossing to the far shore in the Upanishadas, to places of pilgrimage for gaining religious merit in the Mahabharata and various Puranas (Eck 1980). Though originally associated with water, the term was widened to include forests, mountains and some of the cities also. From Mahabharata, we start getting references to a number of tirthas along with the list of purposes behind undertaking tirthayatra. Still later on, when the religious concepts changed and saguna worship started to be preferred to the Vedic sacrifices, the importance of pilgrimage increased. Though never at the highest level in the order of important observances, as shown by Bharati (1963:145), pilgrimage was one of the preferred methods for gaining religious merit. It became more popular because this mode of gaining merit was open to all the castes (Eck 1980: 338). Thus, a vast quantity of literature came into existence, describing various tirthas. Puranas are filled with references to tirthas, detailed instructions of routes to be taken for various tirthas, the rituals to be followed at the tirthas and the amount of religious merit to be gained from the visit to such places. Apart from the Puranas, texts glorifying a particular tirtha or a river came to be composed. Thus, there are a number of 'mahatmyas' of major rivers like Ganga, Godavari, Bhima etc and some of the important tirthas. Eventually, even listening to the discourses on the mahatmyas of tirthas came to be considered as meritorious as the actual pilgrimage. The visit to tirthas came to be associated with śraddha and mundana ceremonies as well as with prayśchitas of any sin. Some of these places were associated with specific purpose such as curing disease or barrenness or granting some boons (Bharati 1963: 152).
Most of the Brahmanical tirthas are associated with water; mainly river and thus, the prominent tirthas are situated on the confluence of rivers, estuaries, riverbanks and the sources of rivers. Some tirthas are associated with seashore and mountains, while some of the cities associated with saintly personalities also came to be considered as tirthas (Bhardwaj 1973). In Maharashtra, the holy places of the medieval sects like Nathapantha and Mahanubhava are those, which are associated with their saints in one way or the other.
Thus, over the period the Brahmanical concept of tirtha was widened and evolved to almost mean any sacred place. While a number of tirthas are large cities, easily accessible, some of the tirthas like Kedarnatha-Badrinatha in the Himalayas, situated in isolated, remote places, are difficult to approach. It is basically the unique, unusual features of the landscape and the remoteness of the site, which have worked in the choice and eventual development of these tirthas.
