History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c74.t2.152
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c74.t2.152
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v5.c74.t2.152.1
It appears that Vācaspati1449a holds that Avimukteśvara lınga is the same as Viśvanātha, but both the Tristhalī-setu (p 296) and Tīr. Pr. (p. 187) reject this idea. The Skandapurāṇa (Kāsī. 10. 93) mentions Viśveśvara and Avimukteśvara as separate *lingas*. Besides worshipping Viśvanātha, every pilgrim to Benares has to visit the five tīrthas¹⁴⁵⁰ (Pañcatīrthī). According to the Matsyapurāṇa the five essential tīrthas in the Ānandakānana of Viśveśvara are Daśāśvamedha, Lolārka,1450a Keśava, Bindumādhava and Maṇikarṇikā.¹⁴⁵¹ In modern times the five essential tīrthas called Pañcatīrthī are the confluence of the Asi with the Ganges, the Daśāśvamedha *ghāṭ*, Maṇikarṇikā, the Pañcagaṅgā *ghāṭ* and the confluence of the river Varaṇā (called Bārnā by the common people) with the Ganges. This is based on the Kāśīkhaṇḍa.¹⁴⁵² The shrine of Lolārka is situated at the confluence of the Asi (the southern boundary of Banaras) with the Ganges. The Kāśīkhaṇḍa ¹⁴⁵³ furnishes a popular etymology for the name Lolārka, viz. that the mind of the Sun on seeing Kāśī became agitated. The Asi is a tolerably wide stream (about 40 feet) in the rainy season, but is dry at other times. The several gigantic ghats with their flights of stone steps are a grand sight at Banaras. The Ganges while passing by Banaras takes a great sweep so that its mighty current flows in a northerly direction (that is towards the Himālaya) and is therefore held to be peculiarly holy here.
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The Daśāśvamedha-ghāṭ has been famed for centuries. Jayaswal's interpretation of the epithets applied to the Bhāraśivas in Vākāṭaka grants should be accepted viz. the Bhāraśivas were an imperial dynasty, were crowned with the holy waters of the Ganges and took their ceremonial baths on the Ganges at the end of ten Aśvamedha sacrifices, on account of which the Daśāśvamedha-ghāṭ¹⁴⁵⁴ at Banaras was so named (Jayaswal's 'History of India' 150 A. D.-350 A. D p. 5). In order to realize the grandeur of Banaras on the side of the river one must be at the Daśāśvamedhaghāṭ at dawn. For the eulogy of Daśāśvamedha, vide Kāśīkhaṇḍa 52. 83 ff and Tri. S. p. 159. The Kāśīkhaṇḍa says that formerly the tīrtha was called Rudrasaras, but as Brahmā performed ten Aśvamedhas there it came to be called Daśāśvamedha (chap 52. 66–68). The Maṇikarṇikā (also called Mukti-kṣetra) pool is the very centre of the religious life of Banaras and ¹⁴⁵⁵ is the most holy among all the Banaras tīrthas. The Kāśīkhaṇḍa gives a phantastic story of its origin (in chapter 26 verses 51–63 quoted in Tri. S. pp. 145–146): Viṣṇu dug with his discus a puṣkariṇī, filled it with the perspiration from his own body and performed severe austerities on its bank for 1050 (or 50000) years. Śiva came there and being pleased shook his head and an ear-ornament studded with jewels fell into the pool, which thenceforward came to be called Maṇikarṇikā. The word is ¹⁴⁵⁶ derived in two ways in the Kāśīkhaṇḍa.
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Śiva who is like the wish-yielding jewel whispers in the ear (karṇikā) of good men the Tāraka mantra at the time of death. The extent of Maṇikarṇikā north to south is said to be 105 *hastas* i e. about 160 feet (Kāśīkhaṇḍa 99. 54). In modern times the waters of the Maṇikarṇikā pool become foul and fetid because it is shallow (two or three feet deep), because hundreds of pilgrims cast into it flowers and money by way of worship and because the priests stir the waters with their hands and feet to find the coins dropped by pilgrims. Our methods of worship must be changed The flowers and gifts should be placed on the banks of the pool and then taken away by the priests. The Tri S. p. 147 mentions several mantras (two of which are set out below) to be recited when contemplating on Maṇikarṇikā ¹⁴⁵⁷. Near the Maṇikarṇikā pool is the temple of Tārakeśvara so named from the belief that Śiva will whisper the mantra called *tāraka* in the ear of the dying man brought to the sacred pool (vide Kāśīkhaṇḍa 7.78, 25. 72-73 and 32. 115-116). The Pañcagaṅgā ghāṭ is so called because it is supposed that five rivers, viz the Kiraṇā,¹⁴⁵⁸ Dhūtapāpā, Gaṅgā, Yamunā and Sarasvatī, meet here (though four of them are invisible) This is very highly eulogised and it is said in the Nāradīyapurāṇa and the Kāśīkhaṇḍa (59. 118-133) that when a man takes a bath in the Pañcanada he is not born again in a body made up of the five elements. It is said that this confluence of five rivers had different names viz.
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Dharmanada, Dhūtapātaka, Bindutīrtha and Pañcanada in Kṛta and the following Yugas respectively The Kāśīkhaṇḍa in chap. 59 deals with the confluence of five rivers and gives phantastic legends as to why the rivers were called Kiraṇā (59. 108-113) and Dhūtapāpā (59 101-106). The river Varaṇā is the northern boundary of Vārāṇasī and the end of the *ghāṭs* on the northern side is reached at the confluence of the Varaṇā with the Ganges. That the ghāts have been there for at least a thousand years can be proved from copperplates and inscriptions. The Gāhaḍvāla rulers of Kanoj (of whose times at least 55 copperplates and 3 inscriptions on stone were issued during the period 1097 to 1187 A. D), being devotees of Viṣṇu, several times made grants at the *Ādi-Keśava ghāṭ*. Vide J. R A S. for 1896 p. 787 (king Madanapāla's grant on the occasion of a Sun-eclipse after Mahārājñī Pṛthvīśrīkā took a bath), I. A. vol. 19 p. 249 (grant of Govindacandra in *saṁvat* 1188 i. e. 1131 A. D.), E I 14 p. 197 (Candrādityadeva, who having bathed at Ādikeśava-ghaṭṭa ¹⁴⁵⁹ at the confluence of the rivers Gaṅgā