History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c74.t2.1

v5.c74.t2.1

One of the most ancient reference to the greatness of the confluence of the Ganges and the Yamunā occurs in a khila¹³⁴⁹ verse which is usually placed in Ṛg. X. 75 and may be rendered as follows: "Those who take a bath at the place where the two rivers, white and dark, meet together, rise up (fly up) to heaven; those determined men who abandon their body there (i. e. commit suicide by drowning themselves) secure immortality (or *mokṣa*)". This must have been a comparatively early verse. The Skandapurāṇa referes to it as śruti. The greatness of Prayāga is dwelt upon in the Mahābhārata (Vana-parva 85. 69-97, 87. 18-20, Anuśāsana 25. 36-38)¹³⁵⁰ and in many purāṇas such as the Matsya (chapters 103-112, in all 260 verses), Kūrma I. 36-39 (verses 121), Padma (I. chap. 40-49), Skanda, Kāśī-Khaṇḍa, chap. 7. 45-65). Only a few out of the hundreds of verses on Prayāga can be cited here by way of sample. One remarkable fact is that the Rāmāyaṇa does not say much about Prayāga. The confluence of the two rivers is no doubt referred to (Rām. II. 54.6) but from the description it appears that there was a forest at what is now Prayāga. Prayāga is called Tīrtharāja (the prince among tīrthas) in the Matsya 109. 15, Skanda (Kāśī 7. 45), Padma VI. 23. 27-35 (where the refrain at the end of each verse is 'sa tīrtharājo jayati prayāgaḥ) and elsewhere. The legend runs that Prajāpati or Pitāmaha (Brahmā) performed a sacrifice here and Prayāga is the middle one of the vedis of Brahmā, the others being Kurukṣetra in the north (uttaravedi) and Gayā in the east. It is believed that three rivers meet at Prayāga viz. Gaṅgā, Yamunā and Sarasvatī (underground between the two). It is said in the Matsya¹³⁵¹, Kūrma and other Purāṇas that at the very sight of Prayāga, even by taking its name or by applying its clay to one's body a man becomes free from sin. The Kūrmapurāṇa¹³⁵² proclaims "it is the sacred spot of Prajāpati; those who bathe here go to heaven and those who die here are not born again." That sacred spot is known as tīrtharāja; it is dear to Keśava. The same is known as Triveṇī.