History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c74.t5.22

v5.c74.t5.22

Many sub-tīrthas are enumerated, out of which two or three may be mentioned here. One is Maheśvara-tīrtha (i. e. Oṁkāra) from where Rudra is said to have burnt down with an arrow the three cities of Bāṇāsura (Matsya 188. 2 ff, Padma I. 15 2 ff), Śukla-tīrtha (highly praised in Matsya 192. 3 ff about which it is said that the *rājarṣi* Cāṇakya ¹⁶⁰⁵ attained perfection there), Bhṛgutīrtha (at the very ¹⁶⁰⁶ sight of which a man becomes free from sin, a bath in which leads to heaven and death at which ensures non-return to *saṁsāra*), the Jāmadagnya-tīrtha (where the Narmadā ¹⁶⁰⁷ falls into the sea and where Lord Janārdana secured perfection). The mountain Amarakaṇṭaka is a tīrtha that dispels all sins including brāhmaṇa-murder and it is one yojana all round in extent (Matsya 189. 89, 98). The most important place on the Narmadā is, however, Māhiṣmatī, about the exact location of which scholars have differed. The general consensus of opinion is that Māhiṣmatī is to be identified with Oṁkāra Māndhātā, an island in the Narmadā about 40 miles south of Indore. It has a long history. Moggaliputta Tissa is said in Buddhist works to have sent missionaries to several countries in the reign of Aśoka (about 247 B C.), one of which was sent to Mahiṣamaṇḍala. Dr. Fleet in his paper 'Mahiṣa-maṇḍala and Māhiṣmatī' (in J. R. A. S. for 1910 pp. 425-447) assigns cogent reasons for identifying Mahiṣamaṇḍala and Māhiṣmatī. Māhiṣmatī was well-known to the Mahābhāṣya, ¹⁶⁰⁸ from a passage in which it follows that by a forced march a person starting from Ujjayinī could reach Māhiṣmatī the next morning. Kālidāsa describes it as surrounded by Revā (Raghuvaṁśa VI 43). Māhiṣmatī is mentioned as being on the Narmadā or Revā in Udyogaparva 19. 23-24, 166. 4, Anuśāsana 166. 4, Bhāgavata X. 79. 21, Padma II. 92. 32.