History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c74.t5.7

v5.c74.t5.7

says (verse 1) that there are 400 principal tīrthas on both banks of the Narmadā, but from Amara-kaṇṭaka three crores and a half (verses 4 and 27–28).¹⁵⁹⁵ The Vanaparva (in chap 188 103 and chap. 222.24) mentions the Narmadā along with the Godāvarī and other rivers of the south. In the same parva (chap. 89. 1–3) it is stated that the holy Narmadā is in the Ānarta country¹⁵⁹⁶, that it is endowed with *priyaṅgu* creepers and mango groves, that it has strings of Vānīra fruit, that it flows to the west and that all the holy places in the three worlds come for a bath to the Narmadā. The Matsya and Padma declare¹⁵⁹⁷ that the Ganges is holy in Kanakhala, the Sarasvatī in Kurukṣetra, but the Narmadā is holy everywhere whether in a village or in a forest and that the Narmadā purifies the sinner by its very sight while the waters of the Sarasvatī do so by three baths (on three days), of the Yamunā (by baths) in seven days and of the Ganges by a single bath. The Viṣṇudharmasūtra (85.8) in enumerating a list of tīrthas that are eminently fit for śrāddha includes the banks of the Narmadā throughout the whole length among them. The Narmadā is said¹⁵⁹⁸ to have started from the body of Rudra which is a poetic way of saying that it rises from Amarakaṇṭaka that is said to be the abode of God Maheśvara and his spouse (Matsya 188 91). The Vāyupurāṇa declares that the holy Narmadā, the best of rivers, is the daughter of the pitṛs and the śrāddhas offered on it become inexhaustible¹⁵⁹⁹. The Matsya and Kūrma both say that the river Narmadā has a course of complete 100 yojanas and its breadth is two yojanas¹⁶⁰⁰. Prof. K. V. Rangaswami Aiyangar seizes upon the length of 100 yojanas and says (on p. 199 note 4 of his edition of Kalpataru on Tīrtha in G. O. S.) that the Matsya is very accurate, since the length of the Narmadā is now found to be about 800 miles. But he forgets that the breadth is said to be two yojanas (i. e. 16 miles on the scale for a yojana adopted by him). It is not shown how and where (except at the mouth if at all) the Narmadā is 16 miles in breadth in its long course. Both Matsya and Kūrma state that the Narmadā is (rises) from Amarakaṇṭaka which is to the western side of the country of Kaliṅga.¹⁶⁰¹