History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c74.11

v5.c74.11

It is said that, just as some parts of the human body (e. g. the right hand or ear) are held to be purer (than others), so some localities on the earth are held to be very holy. Tīrthas are held to be holy (on three grounds, viz.) on account of some wonderful natural characteristic of the locality or on account of the peculiar strikingness (or grandeur) of some watery place or on account of the fact that some (holy) sages resorted to them (for bathing, austerities &c.). Tīrtha, therefore, means a locality or spot or expanse of water which gives rise to the accumulation of righteousness (merit) owing to its own peculiar nature without any adventitious circumstance (such as the presence of Śālagrāma near it).¹²⁴³ Or it is better to say that those localities that have been technically spoken of by wise and great sages as tīrthas are tīrthas, just as Pāṇini employs such technical terms as Nadī and Vṛddhi in his grammar. The Skandapurāṇa¹²⁴⁴ says that a spot of the earth resorted to by ancient good men for the collection of merit is called tīrtha and that the main thing is to go to (i. e associate with holy) men and pilgrimage is only a secondary object.