Sakamvari and the Ford of Gold

Narada had been talking for a long time by then.

He had come to the Pandavas in their forest and had set out for Yudhishthira the whole circuit of the sacred fords, not in his own words but in the words of the Rishi Pulastya, who had recited it once to Bhishma when Bhishma was a young man wandering the earth. Narada was giving it back exactly as it had been given, and the recitation had just come down off Kurukshetra.

He had named Prithudaka, which the learned say is holier than all the other tirthas put together. He had named the ground that lies between Tarantuka and Arantuka and the lakes of Rama and Machakruka, which is Kurukshetra itself, and is also called Samantapanchaka, and is the northern sacrificial altar of the Grandsire. He had said that even the dust of it, carried on the wind, leads a sinful man to a blessed state.

And then the road went on, because the road always goes on.

"Then, O great king," Pulastya had said, "one should proceed to the excellent tirtha of Dharma."

The god of justice practised austerities at that spot, and the austerities were highly meritorious, and that is the whole reason the place is holy. He was not born there and he did not fight there. He sat down and did something hard for a long while, and the ground took the character of what he did, and he made it a tirtha himself and left his own name on it. A virtuous man who bathes there with a concentrated soul sanctifies his family to the seventh generation.

Then Jnanapavana, where a pilgrim earns the merit of the Agnishtoma sacrifice and goes to the region of the Munis.

Then the Saugandhika woods, the fragrant forest, and Pulastya named its inhabitants before he named its reward: the celestials with Brahma at their head, Rishis endued with the wealth of asceticism, the Siddhas, the Charanas, the Gandharvas, the Kinnaras and the serpents.

As soon as one enters those woods, he is cleansed of all his sins.

No bath is prescribed there. No fast, no vow, no number of nights. Walking in through the trees is the whole of the rite.

"Then, O king, should one repair to the sacred goddess Saraswati, known there as the goddess Plaksha, that best of streams and foremost of rivers."

This is the river high up, before she is a river. She is not a broad water there with towns on her banks. She comes out of the ground through a hole in an ant-hill, and that is where the pilgrim is told to stand and pour water on himself, in the trickle issuing from the mound. Bathing there and worshipping the Pitris and the gods, a man obtains the merit of the horse-sacrifice, which is the price of a king's whole treasury and a year of priests, and here it is being given away at a seep in the mud.

Near that ant-hill is a tirtha called Isanadhyushita, the seat of Isana, and it is a rare one. Pulastya gives its position and does not give it in leagues.

It lies from the ant-hill at the distance of six throws of a heavy stick.

That is a countryman's measurement. Somebody once paced it out by picking up a staff and hurling it and walking to where it fell and hurling it again, six times, and the direction was kept and the number was remembered and it went into the account and Pulastya repeats it to Bhishma without apology. As is seen in the Puranas, bathing there a man obtains the merit of giving away a thousand Kapila kine, and of the horse-sacrifice besides.

Then Sugandha. Then Satakumbha. Then Panchayaksha, the place of the five Yakshas. A man who journeys to those three becomes adored in heaven, and Pulastya spends no more words on them than that.

Then Trisulakhata, the trench dug by the trident. One should bathe there and set himself to worship the Pitris and the gods, and doing so, without doubt, he obtains after death the status of Ganapatya.

That is not heaven. It is a post. It means being taken into the household of the god who dug that trench, and counted among his attendants, and given something to do.

"One should next proceed, O king, to the excellent spot of the Goddess, celebrated over the three worlds by the name of Sakamvari."

Here the catalogue stops for a moment, because there is something to tell.

The Goddess took a vow on that ground and kept it for a thousand celestial years, and Pulastya is careful about how the thousand years were spent. She did not fast outright. She of excellent vows subsisted upon herbs, month after month, one month at a time, for the space of a thousand celestial years. It was not a single heroic hunger. It was the same small meal of leaves, taken again and again, for longer than the memory of the world.

And the Rishis heard of it.

They came to her out of reverence, men with the wealth of asceticism in them, who had done long things themselves and knew what a long thing costs, and they came to look at somebody doing it. And she did not send them away and she did not preach at them. She fed them. She entertained them with herbs, which was all she had, which was the very thing she was living on, and she divided it with every ascetic who walked in.

And it is for this that they bestowed on her the name of Sakamvari, the bearer of potherbs.

Hold that. She is a goddess celebrated over the three worlds, and the name she carries through those worlds was not given her for the thousand years of penance. It was given her for what she handed her visitors at the door.

The rule for the pilgrim follows from it exactly. The man who arrives at Sakamvari with rapt attention, leading a Brahmacharya mode of life, and passes three nights there in purity, subsisting on herbs alone, obtains the merit of a man who has lived upon herbs for twelve years.

Three nights bought with twelve years. But Pulastya puts in a clause that he puts in nowhere else in the whole recitation, and it is the clause that matters.

He obtains it at the will of the goddess.

Not by the arithmetic of the place. Because she gives it to him, the way she gave them the leaves.

"Then should one proceed to the tirtha called Suvarna, famed through the three worlds."

Suvarna means gold. What happened there was that a god knelt to another god.

In days of old, at that spot, Vishnu paid his adorations to Rudra. He did it for his grace, in the ordinary posture of a suppliant, and he obtained by it many boons difficult of acquisition even by the gods. Pulastya does not soften the picture and does not explain it away. The preserver of the worlds went to that ground as a worshipper goes, and asked, and was heard.

And the destroyer of Tripura was gratified, and he answered in one sentence, and the sentence is the reason the tirtha has its name.

"O Krishna, thou shalt, without doubt, be much beloved in the world, and the foremost of everything in the universe."

He calls him Krishna, the dark one, which is the old name for that god and not a mistake. And what he grants is not a weapon and not a term of years. It is love. The boon that Vishnu could not get by being Vishnu, and had to come and ask another god for, was to be beloved in the world, and the same breath adds the rest of it, that he shall be foremost of everything there is.

So a pilgrim who goes to Suvarna and worships the deity having the bull for his mark obtains the merit of the horse-sacrifice, and the status of Ganapatya as well.

The road runs on from there in three short steps. To the tirtha of Dhumavati, where a man who fasts three nights obtains, without doubt, every wish he has been carrying. Then, in the southern half of that spot of the Goddess, to a tirtha called Rathavarta, the turning of the chariot, which is to be approached with a devout heart and the senses held in, and by the grace of Mahadeva a man attains from it an exalted state. One should walk round that place before leaving it.

Then to Dhara, which washes off all sins.

Bathing there, a man is freed from every sorrow, and Pulastya does not say from his own sorrows. He says from every sorrow.

"One should then repair, O virtuous one, after bowing to the great mountain, to the source of the Ganges."

The order is not decoration. Before a man goes to the place where the river comes out of the ice, he is to turn and salute Himavat, in whose body the water has been standing since before there were men to bathe in it. Then he may go up. That source, says Pulastya, is without doubt like the gate of heaven.

There he should bathe with a concentrated soul in the tirtha called Koti, and by it he obtains the merit of the Pundarika sacrifice and delivers his race. Residing one night there is worth the gift of a thousand kine.

Then the three waters that are close by, Saptaganga where the river runs in seven, Triganga where she runs in three, and Sakravarta, the turning of Indra. Offering oblations of water duly to the gods and the Pitris at those, a man becomes adored in the regions of the virtuous.

Then down the mountain. At Kanakhala, fasting three nights, he reaps the merit of the horse-sacrifice and goes to heaven. At Kapilavata, fasting one night, the gift of a thousand kine. Then the Nagatirtha, which belongs to Kapila the king of the Nagas and is celebrated over all the worlds, and bathing there is worth a thousand Kapila kine, cow for cow with the serpent king's own name.

Then the excellent tirtha of Santanu, which is called Lalitika. The father of Bhishma left a ford behind him on that road, and the man who bathes in it never sinks into distress hereafter.

Then the confluence of the Ganga and the Yamuna, where the merit is ten horse-sacrifices and a man rescues his whole line. Then Sugandha, and the abode of Brahma at the end of it. Then Rudravarta, and heaven. Then the confluence of the Ganga and the Saraswati. Then Bhadrakarneswara, where the gods are worshipped duly and the worshipper never sinks into distress. Then Kuvjamraka, the crooked mango, for a thousand kine and heaven.

Then the Arundhativata, the fig tree of Arundhati, where a man with a concentrated soul and the Brahmacharya vows bathes in Samudraka and fasts three nights, and takes away the horse-sacrifice, the thousand kine, and his ancestors with him.

The road then goes looking for headwaters.

At Brahmavarta, with a concentrated soul and the Brahmacharya vows, a man obtains the horse-sacrifice and goes to the region of Soma. At Yamuna-prabhava, the source of the Yamuna, he obtains the horse-sacrifice and is worshipped in heaven. At Darvisankramana, which is worshipped by the three worlds, the same merit and heaven after it. At Sindhu-prabhava, the source of the Indus, which the Siddhas and the Gandharvas frequent, he should stay five nights, and he takes away the merit of giving gold in abundance. Then the tirtha called Vedi, which Pulastya calls inaccessible and recommends anyway.

Then Rishikulya and Vasishtha, and of these two the second carries the strangest promise in the whole recitation: by visiting it, all orders attain to Brahmanhood. Not by rites, not by mantras, not by birth. By going. At Rishikulya a man should bathe and live a month upon herbs and worship the gods and the Pitris, and he is cleansed of all his sins and obtains the region of the Rishis.

Then Bhrigutunga, the peak of Bhrigu, for the horse-sacrifice. Then Vipramoksha, the release of the brahmana, where a man is freed from every sin. Then the tirtha of Krittika and Magha, whose merit is greater than the Agnishtoma and the Atiratra sacrifices together.

Then Vidya. The man who bathes there in the evening obtains proficiency in every kind of knowledge, and it is the only ford on the list where the hour of the day is part of the instruction.

Then Mahasrama, where one night and a single meal buys many auspicious regions and delivers ten generations of a man's line before him and ten after him. Then Mahalaya, where one dwells a month and fasts three nights and is cleansed. Then Vetasika, worshipped by the Grandsire, which gives the horse-sacrifice and the state of Usanas. Then Sundarika, worshipped by the Siddhas, which gives personal beauty, as witnessed by the ancients.

Then Brahmani, approached with subdued senses and the Brahmacharya vow, from which a man ascends to the region of Brahma on a lotus-hued car.

Pulastya keeps naming the vehicle. It is always a car, and it is always coming down for somebody who bathed in a stream.

"One should repair next to the sacred Naimisha, worshipped by the Siddhas. There dwelleth for aye Brahma with the gods."

And then Pulastya says the thing about Naimisha that is said about no other place on the road.

By only purposing to go to Naimisha, half one's sins are destroyed. By entering it, one is cleansed of all of them.

Half, for the intention. The wish to go, formed honestly and held, is credited at fifty in the hundred before the man has walked a step, and the remaining half waits at the edge of the wood for him to arrive. There is no bathing in that sentence and no fasting and no fee.

The pilgrim of subdued senses should then stay at Naimisha for a month, and Pulastya gives the reason plainly: for all the tirthas of the earth are at Naimisha. Every ford he has been naming for days, every ant-hill spring and mountain seep and confluence, is present in that one forest. Bathing there with restrained senses and regulated fare, a man obtains the merit of the cow-sacrifice, and sanctifies his race for seven generations upward and seven downward. He who renounces his life at Naimisha by fasting enjoys happiness in the heavenly regions, and Pulastya adds, as though the claim needed a witness, that this is the opinion of the wise.

Naimisha is ever sacred and holy.

Then the road picks up again. To Gangodbheda, the bursting forth of the Ganga, where a man fasts three nights and obtains the merit of the Vajapeya sacrifice and becomes like unto Brahma himself. To the Saraswati, where oblations to the gods and the Pitris buy a certain bliss in the regions called Saraswata. To Vahuda, with a subdued soul and the Brahmacharya vow, where one night makes a man adored in heaven and gives him the merit of the Devasatra sacrifice.

To the holy Kshiravati, which is frequented by holier men than itself, where worshipping the gods and the Pitris is worth the Vajapeya.

To Vimalasoka, the place without grief, where a man of subdued soul stays one night and is adored in heaven for it.

"One should next proceed to the excellent Gopratra in the Sarayu."

That is the landing place on the river at Ayodhya, and Pulastya tells in one sentence what happened there.

Whence Rama, O king, with all his attendants and animals, renouncing his body, ascended to heaven.

The attendants are not surprising. A king who walks into a river to leave the world takes his household with him, and the epics are full of retinues. It is the animals that stop the ear. The horses of the city went up. The dogs that followed the crowd down to the water went up. Nothing that came to the bank that day was told to wait outside.

And Pulastya gives the cause, and does not give it to Rama.

In consequence of the efficacy of the tirtha alone.

Not his merit, not his archery, not his name. The ford did it. That is the argument the whole recitation has been making since Kurukshetra, and here it is stated at its strongest, on the one occasion when there was a man present who could have taken the credit. A pilgrim bathing there has his soul cleansed of all sins, through Rama's grace and by virtue of his own deeds, and is adored in heaven.

Then the Rama-tirtha on the Gomati, for the horse-sacrifice and the sanctifying of one's race. Then Satasahasrika, for a thousand kine. Then the unrivalled Bhartristhana, for the horse-sacrifice. Then a tirtha called Koti, where a man worships Kartikeya and reaps a thousand kine and great energy with it.

Then Varanasi. Worship the god having the bull for his mark, bathe in the Kapilahrada, and take away the merit of the Rajasuya sacrifice.

Then Avimukta, the place the god has never abandoned. Beholding there the god of gods, the pilgrim is immediately cleansed of even the sin of slaying a Brahmana, and Pulastya specifies that this comes from such sight alone. Nothing is done with the hands. And by renouncing one's life at Avimukta, one obtains deliverance.

Then the rare tirtha of Markandeya, at the confluence of the Ganges, which gives the Agnishtoma and delivers a man's race.

"Sojourning next to Gaya, with subdued senses and observing the Brahmacharya vow, one obtaineth the merit of the horse-sacrifice and also rescueth his race."

Gaya is where the dead are fed, and Pulastya moves through it slowly.

There in that tirtha is the Akshaya-vata, the undying fig, celebrated over the three worlds. Whatever is offered there to the Pitris is said to become inexhaustible. A handful of rice put down under that tree does not stay a handful. It goes on being given, to men who cannot be reached in any other way, for as long as the tree stands.

Bathing at the Mahanadi there and offering oblations to the gods and the Pitris, a man acquires eternal regions and rescues his line. Then Brahma-sara, the lake adorned by the woods of Dharma, where one night's stay gains the region of Brahma. In that lake Brahma raised a sacrificial pillar, and walking round the pillar is worth the Vajapeya sacrifice.

Then Denuka, celebrated over the world, where a man stays one night and gives away sesame and kine and ascends to the region of Soma. On the hills there the cow called Kapila used to range with her calf, and Pulastya says there is little doubt of this, for the hoof-marks of that cow and her calf are seen there to this day. Bathing in those hoof-prints, whatever sin a man may have incurred is washed away. The whole of it, out of two dents in rock.

Then Gridhravata, the vulture's fig, consecrated to the trident-bearing god, where a man approaches the deity with the bull for his mark and rubs himself with ashes. A Brahmana who does it obtains the merit of the twelve years' vow, and a man of any other order is freed from all his sins.

Then the Udyanta mountains, which resound with melodious notes, where the foot-print of Savitri is still seen. The Brahmana of rigid vows who says his morning, noon and evening prayers there obtains the merit of performing that service for twelve years. And there is the famous Yonidwara, the gate of the womb, and a person who repairs to it becomes exempted from the pain of rebirth.

Staying at Gaya through both fortnights, dark and light, sanctifies seven generations up and down. It is why Pulastya says a man should wish for many sons, so that even one of them may go to Gaya.

Then Phalgu, and the horse-sacrifice, and great success.

"One should repair then, with subdued soul, to Dharmaprishta. There, O foremost of warriors, dwelleth Dharma for aye."

A man drinks of the well that is there, bathes, offers oblations, and ascends to heaven. In that tirtha stands the hermitage of the great Rishi Matanga, and Pulastya describes the asylum before he prices it: it is beautiful, and it is capable of soothing fatigue and sorrow. Entering it earns the Gavayana sacrifice. Touching the image of Dharma that stands in it earns the horse-sacrifice.

Then Brahmasthana, where a man approaches Brahma himself and acquires the Rajasuya and the horse-sacrifice together. Then the tirtha called Rajasuya, where he should partake of the offerings daily made to the Yakshini and by her grace be freed even of the sin of slaying a Brahmana. Then Maninaga, worth a thousand kine, of which one further thing is recorded: he that eats anything belonging to that tirtha does not succumb to the poison of a venomous snake.

Then the favourite wood of the Brahmarshi Gautama, where a man bathes in the lake of Ahalya, beholds the image of Sree, and bathes in the well sacred to the royal Rishi Janaka and ascends to the region of Vishnu.

Then the fords come faster. Vinasana, Gandaki which is made of the waters of every tirtha, Visala, Adhivanga, Kampana, Maheswari, the tank of the celestials. Then Somapada, where ten millions of tirthas exist together, which a wicked Asura in the shape of a tortoise was carrying away when Vishnu took it back from him.

Then the place of Narayana, called Salagrama, where the gods and the Adityas and the Vasus and the Rudras all come to adore Janardana, and where a single well holds the four seas. Then Jatismara, which returns to a man the memory of his former life. Then Maheswarapura, Vamana, the river Kausika, Jyeshthila, Kanya, Nischira, Devakuta, the lake where Viswamitra obtained high success, and Virasrama where Kartikeya dwells.

Then up again, to the Grandsire's tank near the snow-capped mountains, and Kumara-Dhara that falls out of it, where three days of fasting cleanse even the killing of a Brahmana. Then the peak of the great goddess Gauri, and Stana-Kunda on it. Then Kokamukha, where steady vows revive the memory of a former life. Then the river Nanda, the island Rishabha, and Champa on the Bhagirathi.

And then Lalitika, which is graced by the presence of the virtuous, where a man acquires the merit of the Rajasuya sacrifice and is regarded in heaven.

Narada stopped there for the night. The road was not finished, and Yudhishthira, who had a forest to sleep in and twelve years to spend in it, was in no hurry at all.