History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c74.43.2

v5.c74.43.2

The Nṛsiṁhaprasāda (Tīrthasāra) mostly deals with tīrthas in the Deccan and southern India such as Setubandha, Puṇḍarīka (modern Pandharpur), Godāvarī, Kṛṣṇā-veṇyā, Narmadā. The Tristhalīsetu of Nārāyaṇabhaṭṭa devotes two-thirds of it to Benares and its sub-tīrthas and the rest to Prayāga and Gayā. This unequal treatment arose from various causes, such as the localities where the authors lived, their familiarity with the holy places and their predilections. There was also another tendency among the authors of Purāṇas, Māhātmyas and digests viz. that of great exaggeration and over-statement which is often repellent. If a man reads the description of one tīrtha and does not discount much as sheer hollow laudation, he is likely to feel that a pilgrimage to a certain tīrtha will yield all the desires in this life as well in the next and that after visiting a holy tīrtha like Kāśī or Prayāga he need not go to any other tīrtha, nor need he perform any *yajña* or act of charity and the like. A few striking passages may be cited here. The Vanaparva remarks that¹²⁷⁰ even gods and sages secured perfection at Puṣkara and that whoever takes a bath there and devoutly worships gods and his pitṛs secures rewards ten times of what the performance of Aśvamedha might give. About this very tīrtha viz. Puṣkara, the Padmapurāṇa says that there is no holier tīrtha in this world. The Vanaparva (83.