History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c74.23.2

v5.c74.23.2

a story is narrated that the sages performed a sattra on the Sarasvatī and Kavaṣa who was sitting amongst them was driven out by them as not a brāhmaṇa but the son of a female slave and left in a sandy desert with the idea that he would die of thirst, but he praised the waters or *Apām napāt* with the hymn, Ṛg. X. 30 ('pra devatrā brahmaṇe') called 'Aponaptriya' and Sarasvatī came rushing towards the place where Kavaṣa stood and surrounded it, which (spot) thenceforward came to be called¹²⁵⁴ 'Parisaraka'. This shows that in the times of the Ait. Br. and long before it the bed of the Sarasvatī was dry. Devala¹²⁵⁵ mentions several places as Sārasvata tīrthas. The Ṛgveda¹²⁵⁶ VIII. 6.28 appears to hold that the valleys of mountains and the confluences of rivers are sacred. Mountains have been held by most ancient peoples to be the abodes of gods. Mount Parnassus north of Delphi was one of the most holy mountains in classical Greece and Olympus was supposed to be the home of the gods. In the Ṛgveda Parvata is a dual deity with Indra 'O, Indra and Parvata! may you two sharpen (or purify) us (our intellects)' Ṛg I 122 3¹²⁵⁷; O, Indra and Parvata! May you two, being in the forefront of battle, kill with the thunderbolt every one who desires to attack us with an army' Ṛg. I. 132. 6. In Ṛg. VI. 49. 14 a prayer is addressed to Parvata separately 'May the god Ahirbudhnya, may Parvata and may Savitṛ bestow on us food together with the waters on account of our prayers'. In Ṛg III.