History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c75.1050
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c75.1050
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Tīrthayātrā (pilgrimage to holy places) 552-722; *see* 'Gayā', 'tīrtha', 'woman', 'tonsure', advantages of t to the community and to the individual pilgrim 553, all religions lay great emphasis on the sanctity of certain places and enjoin pilgrimages to them 552; ancient Dharmaśāstra works lay emphasis on visits to tīrtha because of the benefits derived therefrom 553; as a means of removing the consequences of sins, 55-56; brāhmaṇa born and bred at a tīrtha like Mathurā or Gayā should be preferred to a stranger, though the latter may have mastered all the Vedas 579, brāhmaṇa should wander about tīrthas acc to Brahmapurāṇa after his capacity to perform yajñas has come to an end 570, classification of tīrthas into four, viz daiva, (established by gods), āsura (associated with asuras like Gaya), ārṣa (established by sages such as Prabhāsa) and Mānusa (established by kings like Manu, Kuru) 567, dharmas common to all men include truthfulness, restraint of mind, charity, ahiṁsā and t. 553-554; digests on tīrthas follow a process of selection, i. e. each describes only a few tīrthas known to it 565; digests have a tendency to make every religious act more elaborate and harder 573; fast at a tīrtha is optional according to Kalpataru but if observed it confers special rewards 473, 584; five classes of people do not reap the rewards of pilgrimage 563; four places of pilgrimage for Buddhists 552; fourteen acts which a pilgrim had to give up after reaching the Ganges or other tīrtha 578;
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held superior to Vedic sacrifices in several respects by the Mahābhārata and Purāṇas 561-562; honouring the pitṛs at the time of starting on t. is specially obligatory on rich men 574; house-holder whose wife is chaste must go on a pilgrimage with her, otherwise he would not reap the fruit of t. 568; idea in the Mahābhārata and some Purāṇas was that t. may help those who have no high moral qualities in removing their sins while those that possess moral qualities gain a great store of merit by t. 562-563; karpaṭi-veśa on t. 573; large rivers, mountains and forests have always been venerated in India as sacred and as the abodes of gods 552; literature on, is more extensive than on any other single topic of Dharmaśāstra 580-582; Mahābhārata lays the greatest emphasis on the cultivation of high moral and spiritual qualities if the full reward of t, is to be reaped 562; Mahābhārata and some purāṇas emphasize that a pure mind is the real tīrtha and that it is better to stay at home and perform one's duties including performance of vedic sacrifices than undertaking t. 570; Mahābhārata and Purāṇas contain at least 40000 verses on t. 580; meaning of tīrtha in the Ṛgveda and other vedas is either 'road' or 'ford' and rarely a holy place 554; meaning of tīrtha in this section 555;
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meaning of tīrtha is sometimes extended to places where Agnihotra and śrāddha are performed, to temples, to house where Veda is being studied, to cowpens, parks, where an aśvattha tree exists, where a teacher stands or a chaste woman dwells 564; mode of travel, use of conveyances, horses, bullock carts, wearing of shoes, rules about these in Purāṇas and digests 576-577; muṇḍana and kṣaura distinguished 575; not only men of all varṇas but also women and even cāṇḍālas have adhikāra for t. 567-568; number of tīrthas declared by Vāyu, according to Matsya, Padma, Nāradīya and other Purāṇas, is 35 millions in the sky, the aerial regions and the earth 564; number of tīrthas, acc. to Varāhapurāṇa, is 60 thousand crores 564n; one should not enter upon an examination of the worth of brāhmaṇas at a tīrtha 578-579; one who wants to undertake t. should pay off his three debts, should provide means of maintenance for his sons and consign his wife to their care 571; rewards promised for baths at tīrthas 727; rites to be performed when a person undertakes a t. 572-73, 583; rivers in general, certain named rivers and waters are referred to with great veneration as early as Ṛgveda 555; sacred places for Moslems 552; sarvālopa to be made at starting on t. 577, Shah Jehan, emperor, remitted the tax levied on pilgrims at Prayāga and Kāśī owing to eloquent pleading of Kavīndrācārya 571;
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six rivers having their sources in the Himālaya and six to the south of Vindhya are declared to be most holy devatīrthas by Brahmapurāṇa 567, some digests state that a pilgrim has to wear the *kārpaṭī* dress at all tīrthas when he is actually travelling, while others say that he has to do so only at Gayā 573, some purāṇas say that some virtues may be called mental tīrthas and purity of mind is the highest tīrtha 563, some say that tonsure and fast are necessary at all tīrthas except at Kurukṣetra, Viśālā, Virajā and Gayā 574; śrāddha has to be performed at most famous tīrthas, but from the procedure of śrāddha are omitted arghya, āvāhana, entering the thumb of the invited brāhmaṇa in the food served, the question about being satiated and vikira 616, śrāddha may be performed at any time after a pilgrim reaches the tīrtha 616, śrāddha at tīrthas consists, if the whole procedure cannot be followed, in offering piṇḍas of barley meal or rice cooked in milk, cake of sesame or jaggery and one should offer a single piṇḍa to all relatives after pārvaṇaśrāddha and another piṇḍa for servants, slaves, cattle, trees etc. 616-617, tended to foster the idea of the fundamental unity of India and Indian culture 553, tended to level up all men by bringing them together to the same holy rivers and shrines 553; three grounds on which tīrthas are said to be holy 554-555, tonsure and fast are not obligatory but only kāmya according to Kalpataru but otherwise according to others 573-575, t.
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sacrifices and various gifts are the means of cleansing the mind 563, t yields full fruit only if performed bare-footed 576, t. yields fruit to men of all varṇas and āśramas 563, use of bullock-cart condemned in Matsyapurāṇa as leading to hell and of other conveyances (not drawn by bulls) as fruitless, but Kūrma recommends to those who are unable to walk conveyances drawn by mules, horses or men 576, use of a conveyance is according to Kalpataru condemned only in pilgrimage to Prayāga 576, use of a vessel allowed 577, view that the institution of t was first started by Buddhists and Jains is wrong 558; was deemed very early to be a way of redemption of sins for men and women 569, was favoured by writers on Dharmaśāstra by prescribing that no money was to be demanded by a ferryman or a toll officer from a pilgrim, from a pregnant woman, from a vedic student, forest hermit or ascetic, but this was not followed even by Hindu kings 571, whether tonsure at the time of starting on a pilgrimage is obligatory 573, who are eligible for or have adhikāra for t 567-571, widows, ascetics and śūdras have to cut all hair on pilgrimage 575, women could not undertake t without husband's permission 569, works on, repel by their over-statements and exaggerations, when they state that pilgrimage to a particular tīrtha will yield all one's desires in this world and the next, that even gods secured perfection at Puṣkara, that Pṛthūdaka is the holiest of tīrthas etc. 565-566