History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c74.111

v5.c74.111

The literature on tīrthas is probably far more extensive than on any other single topic of Dharmaśāstra Not to mention the Vedic Literature, the Mahābhārata and the Purāṇas contain on a very modest calculation at least 40000 verses on tīrthas, sub-tīrthas and legends connected with them. In the Vanaparva (chap. 82-156) and Śalyaparva (chap. 35-54) alone there are about 3900 verses on *tīrthayātrā*. To mention only a few of the Purāṇas, the Brahmapurāṇa devotes about 6700 verses (i. e. nearly half of its total extent of 13783 verses) to tīrthas, the Padma about 4000 verses out of the 31000 verses of the first five khaṇḍas, the Varāhapurāṇa devotes about 3182 verses to tīrthas (out of which about 1400 refer to Mathurā) out of about 9614 verses, the Matsya about 1200 verses out of 14002. Besides these, the following well-known digests and works on tīrthas deserve mention. The Tīrthavivecana-kāṇḍa of the Kalpataru of Lakṣmīdhara (G. O. S. series); the Caturvarga-¹³²⁰cintāmaṇi of Hemādri (1260-1270 A D) contained a section on tīrthas (no Ms. has yet been discovered), the Tīrthacintāmaṇi of Vācaspati (1450-1480 A. D.) published in B. I. series, the Tīrthasāra, part of Nṛsiṁhaprasāda about 1500 A. D. (published in the Sarasvati-bhavana series); the Tristhalīsetu of Nārāyaṇabhaṭṭa (about 1550-1580 A. D.) printed by the Ānandāśrama Press, Poona; Tīrthasaukhya, a part of Toḍarānanda (1565-1589 A. D.), Tīrthatattva or Tīrthayātrāvidhitattva of Raghunandana whose literary activity lies between 1520-1570 A D. (printed in Bengali characters and over and above the 28 *tattvas* of his Smṛtitattva), Tīrthaprakāśa by Mitramiśra about 1610-1640 (published in the Chowkhamba Sanskrit series), the Tristhalīsetusāra-saṅgraha of Bhaṭṭoji (about 1625); Tristhalīsetusārasaṅgraha of Nāgeśa, the Tīrthenduśekhara of Nāgeśa or Nāgoji (published in the Sarasvatībhavana series, Benares, 1936). There are several works on tīrthas (not yet printed) mentioned in H. of Dh. vol 1. p. 554, of which the Tīrtharatnākara of Anantabhaṭṭa composed at the order of Anūpasiṁha is probably the largest work on tīrthas (ms no. 1822 in the Anup Library at Bikaner). Besides these there are special works on individual tīrthas such as the Gaṅgā-vākyāvalī¹³²¹ (on the Ganges) of Vidyāpati (1400-1450 A. D.) published by Dr. J. B. Chaudhuri; Kāśīmrtimoksa-vicāra of Sureśvarācārya (published in the Sarasvatibhavana Texts series, Benares 1936); the Gayāśrāddha-paddhati of Raghunandana, the Purusottama-ksetratattva of Raghunandana (published by Jivananda). Only printed works have been drawn upon in this work (except where expressly stated otherwise).