History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c74.t2.167

v5.c74.t2.167

One of the most meritorious of all pilgrimages is the Pañcakrośī by road. Lakṣmīdhara in his section on Tīrthas in the Kṛtyakalpataru apparently takes no notice of it. The length of the Pañcakrośī road is about 50 miles and there are hundreds of shrines on the road Taking Maṇikarṇikā as the centre the whole road describes an irregular semicircle round the city of Banaras with a radius of five krośas (about ten miles) and hence it is called pañcakrośī. The word 'pañcakrośī' occurs very often in the Kāśīkhaṇḍa (as in chap 26, verses 80 and 114, chap 55 44). This pilgrimage may be very briefly described as follows :—The pilgrim starts from the Maṇikarṇikā-ghāt and going along the bank of the Ganges arrives at the confluence of the river Asi with the Ganges and halts for the day at a village called Khāṇḍava about six miles from Maṇikarṇikā. The 2nd day's march (for eight or ten miles) ends at the village called Dhūpacandī where he offers worship to the goddess of that name. On the 3rd day the pilgrim walks 14 miles to the village Rāmeśvara. On the 4th day he walks eight miles and reaches the village Śivapura. On the 5th day he walks 6 miles and reaches the village Kapiladhārā, where the pilgrim offers oblations to his pitṛs On the 6th day he walks from Kapiladhārā to Varaṇāsaṅgama and thence to Maṇikarṇikā, a distance of six miles It is the practice for pilgrims to scatter grains of barley from Kapiladhārā to Maṇikarṇikā. The pilgrim bathes, pays *dakṣiṇā* to the priest and then goes to the temple of Sākṣī-Vināyaka who is supposed to bear witness to the pilgrim's having performed the Pañcakrośī-yātrā.