14. The Gautami-mahatmya section of the Brahma Purana

This unit consists of one hundred and five adhyayas, viz.70-175, all of them eulogising various holy places situated on the bank of the river Godavari. It forms an independent Its style also differs from the book (Pustakam) by itself. general style of the Brahma Purana up one tirtha and relates the story of the origin of the name given to the tirtha, after that its importance is described and the merit of visiting it is given at the end. This is the general style of this unit though there are variations. In each of its adhyayas, it takes The idea of visiting tirthas was not prevalent in the vedic period but it came into existence in the time after the ups. on account of the idea that it was very important for man to visit the holy places, the necessity of eulogising the sanctity of the holy places came into existence. This may be

86 126 compared to modern propaganda for tourism. Thus the Mbh. devotes a great portion to the description of tirthas though it seems to have been added afterwards. In the Br.P., the five chief characteristics of the Purana are dealt with very shortly and mainly it is a tirtha-Purana. Apart from eulogising the religious sanctity of the river Godavari, the Gautami mahatmya is important from the geographical point of view in as much as it furnishes accurate information regarding the area of the river Godavari. That Gautami-mahatmya is a distinct work by itself is further proved by the fact that the general topics dealt with in Purana, viz.genealogies, creation, dissolution and recreation, the dharmas of varna and Asrama, sraddha etc. are dealt with before and after the Gautami-mahatmya. It is called a highly meritorious Purana declared by Brahma (Br.P.175.78,87). The place which it occupies in the Br.P. was not meant for it because it divides the chapters on Purusottamksetra-mahatmya. The way in which ch.176 opens shows that it immediately followed ch.69, Moreover, in ch.176, there is no hint from which we may conclude that the mahatmya was there. In Br. 179,2 the sages refer to Bharatavarsa (ch.27) and Purusottamaksetra of which, they say, Vyasa told them elaborately, but they do not mention the Gautami-mahatmya which also precedes ch. 179 in our edition. In the venk. ed. it is placed at the end. This mahatmya was attached to the *

87 127 Brahma Purana later than the chapters on Orissa, for the Naradiya P. (1.92), which gives the contents to the present Br.P., including the mahatmyas of Purusottama-ksetra and Ekamra-ksetra, does not mention the Gautami-mahatmya.82 It has its own beginning and its own end. Even after the colophons, the An. ed. separately mentions the numbers of the adhyayas of the Gautami-mahatmya. Again as stated above, some Mss. like 'ka' contain the whole of the Brahma Purana whereas the Mss. like 'kha' and 'ga' do not contain the Gautami-mahatmya whereas the mss. 'gha', 'na' and 'cas' contain only the Gautami-mahatmya We get separate edition of the Brahma Purana containing only the Gautami-mahatmya also. All these tend to show that though the Gautami-mahatmya was a part of the Brahma Purana , it constituted an independent unit by itself. Even so there are discrepancies in it. Now let us discuss the various points which show irregularities in the story-contents. The adh. 70 forms introduction to the Gautami-mahatmya. The ms..'gha' starts the Gautaml-mahatmya with the Mangalaslokas. The adhyayas 35-36 and 71-72 though containing the stories of Uma-siva differ in details. In the adh. 35 after relating the story of Daksayajnavidhvansa in the caksusa manvantara, the story of Uma's birth is related but here Uma takes birth not because the Gods were confronted by the danger of Taraka but because f

128 88 to get a child was very necessary for one's own good. Moreover, the etymology of the name 'Uma' and the story of how Siva tests. Further, here the danger of Uma's love for him are given. Taraka is not related. On the contrary, Siva comes to Parvati on his own account and asks her to marry him. Also, Kamadeva disturbs siva after his marriage. Rati is said to be present at the time of Kamadahana and she asks a boom from Lord Siva for the rebirth of Kamadeva. The same story of siva and Parvati is related in the adh. 71 but the details vary. The Daksayajnavidhvansa is not mentioned, the gods request Himevan to give birth to Uma because they were confronted by the danger of Taraka. The story regarding the etymology of Uma etc. is not given. It is said that Uma practices penance for siva, but siva himself never appears before Uma to test her affection as was the case in the first account. On the other hand Kamadeva and the spring season disturb his penance and Kamadeva is burnt on that account. Rati is not mentioned here. This difference shows that the Gautami-mahatmya axify clearly differs from the Br.P. This account resembles that of the Kumarasambhava, Rati being added there. Here Parvati is not called Uma but she is called Gauri. The svayamvara of Parvati is not mentioned but the marriage of Parvati with siva is arranged. Here too Brahma performs the marriage rites but the disgraceful story regarding the creation of Valakhilyas from Brahma which was not given in

89 129 the first account, is introduced here to connect it somehow with the Godavari-mahatmya. In the adh. 8, 53-74 the story regarding the birth of the 60,000 sons es of Sagara and their death at being sighted by Kapila is related. The same story is given in adh.78 but the details vary. The story regarding their birth is not different. Moreover, here it is stated that the horse of Hayamedha was carried away by Indra (78-13) but it was tied near Kapila by the demons with an idea that the Gods might be destroyed by Kapila's wrath. In adh, 8.55, Kapila is said to be lord Visnu himself whereas here it is said that in olden times Kapila had helped the gods. He wanted to rest and asked for a proper place and the gods advised him to go to Rasatala; so at the time of Sagara's Asvamedha, Kapila was sleeping in the Rasatala (A similar story regarding king Muchkanda is given in the Br.P. in the adh. 96). In both the adhyayas it is said that the sons of Sagara were burnt by the lustre emanating from Kapila's eye who was sleeping there but in the adh. 78.21, it is said that the divine speech declared that the horse was in the Rasatala. Moreover, they thought twice before disturbing Kapila but being too proud of their ksatradharma, they kicked him and were burnt by him. In the adh. 8, Pancajana is said to be the remaining child whereas in the adh. 78, Asamanja is said to be the remaining child. The story of king Bhagiratha etc. given in the adh. 78 is not referred to in the adh.8, there the main purpose being to count the descendants whereas

90 130 here the main purpose is to eulogise the river Godavari. Thus There are cases of chronological disorder too. after dealing with the deeds of Kartikeya in the adh. 81, the adh. 82 relates the birth of Kartikeya Thus it seems that in narrating the Gautami-mahatmya, the author has not laid much emphasis on the systematic chronological order but he has either. narrated the stories according to the order of tirthas or according to some other order. Again in the adh. 113, it is said that lord siva destroyed the fifth head of Brahma and in the adh. 135 it is said that lord Brahma spoke a lie with his fifth head. The anecdote regarding the paring of sun's lustre given in the adh. 6 and the adh. 32 is gimen y again repeated in the adh. 89. The name of Samjna is changed to Usa and the names Tapi and Visti are also mentioned children. among the names of The story of Pururava's birth given in the adh.7 is again repeated in the adh. 108 but here instead of Ila changing into king Sudyumna afterwards (as was the case in adh.7), King Ila is changed to Ila and the episode. of Umavana is introduced. The story of Sati and Daksa's sacrifice, its destruction and Daksa's prayer in honour of lord Siva etc. given in the adh. 34-35 is again repeated in the adh. 109. The general style of both the adhyayas differs.

91 131 The story of the birth of Maruts given at the end of the adh. 3 is again repeated in the adh. 124 but here it is said that Indra cut the embryo of Diti on the advice of the demon Maya. The story of Kamadahana given in the adh. 71 is again repeated in the adh. 128 but in the adh. 71 the Gods send Kamadeva in order to disturb lord siva so that he might marry Parvati but in the adh. 128, it is stated that when the Gods were confronted by the danger from Taraka, Siva and Parvati were already married and the Gods send Agni only to report to lord siva about the fear of the demon Tarka and incidentally the semen of lord siva falls in Agni and Kartikeya is born. This shows that the Gautami-mahatmya itself is not homogeneous. J a The story of king Prthu's milching the earth given in the adh. 4 is again repeated in the adh. 141 but here the details of milching process are not given. The story of Yayati's enjoying the youth of his son Puru given in the adh. 12 is again repeated in the adh. 146 but here it is given in order to eulogise the river Gautami. The story of Sunahsepa given in the adh.104 is again in the adh. 150 but there it was told with reference to Rohita whereas in the adh. 150, the details regarding Rohita etc. are not given but the story is independently developed in order to eulogise the Paisacatirtha. The story of Hariscandra given in

92 132 the adh, 104 follows the account of the Aitareya Brahmana. The story of Soma abducting Tara given in the adh.9 is again repeated in the adh. 152 but here the story of Brahma's intervention is not given and the birth of Budha is also not mentioned. On the contrary Brhaspati purifies Tara by the water of the river Ganges and curses Candra to become crooked. The story of Rama is given in a scattered form in the adhs. 123, 153, 157, 176 but it is given in order to eulogise the river Gautami. The account of Brahma's creation given in the adh.1 is again repeated in the adh. 161. The slokas 110, 101, 102 & 143. 13,14 are similar and are composed by one hand. The story of the river Ganges being brought down on the earth by the sage Gautama in the adh. 74, 75 is again repeated. in the adh. 175 but in the adh. 175 Vinayaka attaching false blame to the sage Gautama is not given. i In the Gautami-mahatmya also the adhs. 104, 108, 110-111, 122-124, 128 and 129 differ from the general style and are much longer. The ending portion of the Gautami-mahatmya also proves that it was a separate piece independent of the Br.P.

93 133 because if it were a part of the Brahma Purana its eulogy need not have been separately mentioned but would have been included together with the end of the Br.P. As regards the colophons it should be stated that all the colophons are consistent but the colophons of the adhs. 76 and 77 do not mention the contents. 1 The extent of the Br.P. is said to be 10,000 slokas by the majority of the Puranas. But the Matsya P. says that it extends to 13,000 slokas and the Devibhagavata 14,000. The majority of the Puranas do not think that the Gautami-mahatmya in 106 chs. and 4,000 slokas is a part of the Br.P. The Narada P. which gives the table of contents of all the 'eighteen great Puranas says that the Brahma Purana consists of ten thousand slokas and has two parts and in the table no mention is made of any topic treated of in the Gautami-mahatmya which divides the rest of the Purana into two parts on account of the place it occupies in the Br.P. The An. ed. of the Br.P. with Gautamimahatmya counts the slokas to 13,783 which when reduced to the standard of 32 syllables would make it a little more than 14,000 slokas. Leaving aside the Gautami-mahatmya the Br.P. naturally falls into two parts; the first containing 69 adhyayas and the second seventy one but the Naradapurana says that the story of Rama is to be found in the first part and the sanctity of Purusottamaksetra in the second. But in the An. ed. the story +

94 134 of Rama is found in a scattered way as mentioned above. So there seems to have been some revision, since the Narada-Purana was written.