Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c9.3226

c9.3226

TIṬṬIBHASARAS. A sacred pond near the āśrama of Vālmīki. There is a story about this pond. Once a water-fowl lived there with his mate. One day the male fowl went out for food and as he was returning home he found a few other water-fowls going that way and the male fowl suspected the chastity of his wife. The male fowl decided to abandon his mate and the innocent shefowl prayed to the Aṣṭadikpālakas for help. The Aṣṭadikpālakas instantly appeared there and made a pond and said that if the she-fowl could reach from one shore to the other without getting herself drowned she must be treated as chaste. The she-fowl was accordingly put into the waters and asked to swim to the other shore which she did without any accident. From that day onwards the pond was called Tiṭṭibhasaras. (Tiṭṭibha = water fowl. Saras = pond).