Sambodhi 2012 Vol 35

Author(s): J B Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 75

Vol. XXXV, 2012
On Some Tīrthas in the Vāmanapurāņa
65
(aśrame ceha vatsyāmi tvayā sārdham ahaṁ sadā, VP, 38.21). The Saprasārasvata is the place where the nymph Rambhā descended from the heaven to deflect Mańkanaka from the austerities. Charmed by her beauty, his Semen fell in the water. It mysteriously divided itself in seven parts when deposited in a pot. The seven units of the semen led to the brith of seven sages who came to be known as Marutas. (VP, xxxviii. 3-8)
Saptasārasvata is frequented by a gamut of divine and semi-divine beings like gods, Gandharvas, Vidyādharas, Kinnaras and Asuras (VP, 62.52). Those who worship Siva after taking a bath in the Saptasārasvata tīrtha attain everything in this world and the other, repair to the Sarasvata loka and ultimately attain salvation by his grace. (VP, 38. 21-23). Auśanasa / Kapālamocana
Auśanasa was a pre-eminent tīrtha, a siddhakşetra, field of accomplishment, where Uśanas performed penance to attain the planetary position. He who visits the sacred tirtha attains the parama pada, the highest state (VP, 42. 24-26), and by bathing there one is relieved of the sins amassed over several births, goes to the abode of Brahma, and does not revert to the cycle of birth and death (VP, 39.2). A Srāddha performed there delivers one's forefathers (VP, 42.27). According to the Mahābhārata Aušanasa commanded wide fame in the three worlds, and gods, sages, ascetics and Kārtikeya, the divine commander, visited it thrice a day.20
Aušanasa is also known as Kapālamocana as it was here that the sage Rahodara was relieved of the skull (= head) that had stuck to his thigh. While living in the Dandaka forest, Rāma killed many rākṣasas there. The head of one of them that had fallen on the ground suddenly sprang up and sank into the thigh of Rahodara, a sage, who was incidentally roaming nearby, incapacitating him to the extent that he could hardly move. Overcome by pain and with pass dripping from the thigh, he was unable to visit the holy places and pay homage at the shrines. The sages at the tirthas he could somehow•manage to visit, on hearing his woeful tale, unanimously directed him to Aušanasa to get rid of the agony. As he entered the holy water at the Auśanasa tīrtha, the skull immediately left his thigh and fell into the water. Feeling relieved and immensely happy, Rahodara returned to his hermitage to apprise the sages assembled there of the miraculous development at the Aušanas tirtha. In deference to the efficacy of the tirtha, the sages rechristened it as Kapālamocana. The great sage Viśvāmitra, who had a vast āśrma there, achieved Brāhmanahood at Kapālamocana. One is it'variably elevated to