History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c74.t6.1.2

v5.c74.t6.1.2

The Brahmapurāṇa generally refers to the Godāvarī as Gautamī.¹⁶¹⁰ It is stated by the Brahmapurāṇa that the Ganges to the south of the Vindhya mountain is called Gautamī and to its north Bhāgīrathī. The Godāvarī is said to be 200 yojanas long and there are three crores and a half of tīrthas on it.¹⁶¹¹ Daṇḍakāraṇya is said to be the seed (source or cause) of dharma and *mukti* and the country embraced by the Gautamī is specially the holiest.¹⁶¹² A verse occurring in several purāṇas states 'These countries (of Madhyadeśa) are immediately next to the mountain Sahya: thereon is Godāvarī and that country is the most charming in the whole world. There is Govardhana there which is (like) Mandara and Gandhamādana'.¹⁶¹³ Brahmapurāṇa (chapters 74-76) narrates how Gautama brought the Ganges from the matted hair of Śiva to Brahmagiri where he had his hermitage and how Gaṇeśa helped in the task by means of a ruse. The Nāradapurāṇa (uttarārdha 72) narrates that no rain fell for 12 years while Gautama practised *tapas*, that owing to famine all sages came to Gautama's hermitage, that he brought Gaṅgā to his hermitage, that he sowed śāli grains in the morning and reaped the crop by midday, that this went on till there was plenty of rain and crops, that Śiva appeared to him, that Gautama prayed that Śiva should stay near his hermitage and that hence the hill on which Gautama had his hermitage came to be called Tryambaka (verse 24). Varāha (71.