Haigh, Martin J. 2011. Interpreting the Sarasvati Tirthayatra of Shri Balarma. Itihas Darpan, Research Journal of Akhil Bhartiya Itihas Sankalan Yojana, ABISY (New Delhi, ISSN: 0974-3065), vol. 16 (2), October: pp. 179-193. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Interpreting the Sarasvati Tirthayatra of Shri Balarma Prof. Martin J. Haigh Dept. of Anthropology & Geography, School of Social Sciences and Law (SSL), Gipsy Lane Campus, Headington, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, OX3 0BP. England, U.K. Phone: (+044)-1865-483785. Email: [email protected]Abstract: Shri Balarma’s Sarasvati River pilgrimage from the Mahabharata’s Tirthayatraparva is examined as an archetype for modern Hindu pilgrimage. Exploration of contexts suggests that Shri Balarma enacts His journey in His role Adiguru, the original teacher, and as Ananta-shesha, the eternal servant and support for Shri Vishnu. The Goddess Sarasvati, the patron of education and scholarship, appeared on Earth as a river with a mission to wash away sins. The Sarasvati, which is the river most frequently eulogised by the Rig Veda as a mighty stream, and which is by association is the river of knowledge, culture and learning, was largely lost even in the times of the Mahabharata, although modern scholars believe its waters still flow to Prayaga through the Yamuna. However, Shri Balarma’s Holy Brahmins had sufficient spiritual vision to be able to detect its route. In Vedic understanding, Shri Balarma’s Tirthayatra was not a pilgrimage in the modern sense but a Yat’sattra, a travelling ritual that took its Brahmin yajman’s self as the sacrifice. Analysis of the blessings offered by each of the Tirthas shows that the majority concern the satisfaction of individual Earthly desires, some concern social duties and some concern matters of Narrow Religion and mythology. However, there is also a kernel of blessings that directly concern spiritual purification and liberation. These themes confirm the Tithayatra’s true status as prototype for the modern pilgrimage, with all of the diversity of goals and meanings that such journeys involve. Keywords. Ananta-shesha, Balarma, Chaitanya, Mahabharata, Bhaktivedanta Svami Prabhupada, Madhya Lila, Sarasvati, Tirthayatra. Introduction This explores Shri Balarma’s iconic Tirthayatra along the Sarasvati River as depicted in the Mahabharata’s Shalyaparva as a spiritual entity. It is based on Ganguli’s translation 1 and the analyses of Alf Hiltebeitel (2001) 2 , which pertain to its deeper layers of Vedic ritual (Yat’sattra), it is guided by the work of Rana P.B. Singh 3 and it acknowledges the encyclopaedic studies of Kalyanaraman 4 . Shri Balarma’s holy journey along the Sarasvati River may be explored from many perspectives, which include its role in and significance in the thematic development of the Mahabharata story-line. However, this paper explores the Tirthayatra as a prototype for the modern Hindu pilgrimage, recognising its modern iconic status in this respect. Among many alternative academic perspectives, it may be argued that a historian might explore the Mahabharata’s Tirthayatraparva in terms of its historical accuracy and social context, often through a political lens 5 ; an Indologist might study narrative, precedence, structure, cadence and imagery with an eye to understanding the thinking at the time of a text’s creation 6 ; while, equally, another might deconstruct the text in an attempt to link it to the concepts of environmental history or archaeology 7 . However, a pilgrim seeks only a spiritual meaning and message. As Rana P.B. Singh 8 summarises, pilgrimage should be viewed as: “a spiritual
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Haigh, Martin J. 2011. Interpreting the Sarasvati Tirthayatra of Shri Balar�ma. Itihas Darpan,
Research Journal of Akhil Bhartiya Itihas Sankalan Yojana, ABISY (New Delhi, ISSN:
Haigh, Martin J. 2011. Interpreting the Sarasvati Tirthayatra… Itihas Darpan, 16 (2): pp. 179-193. 189
blessedness that are difficult of acquisition (by
other means)!” (9.48)
Bhuva� Location: Indra’s Tirtha. An “auspicious and
sacred tirtha, capable of cleansing from every sin”
(9.49).
Purification
Bhu� Location: Rama tirtha. Where Lord Rama gave
thanks after success and gave away “the whole
earth and its oceans” in thanks.
Dakshina
Bhu� Location Yamuna Tirtha. Where Lord Varuna
gave thanks after victory.
Dakshina
Sva�
Location; Aditya Tirtha; “There, O best of kings,
the adorable Surya of great splendour, having
performed a sacrifice, obtained the sovereignty of
all luminous bodies (in the universe) and acquired
also his great energy” (9.49).
Where sages, including Vyasa,
obtained Yogic knowledge, in fact, the
place to go for Jnana and success.
Sva� “Devala, O best of kings, abandoned the religion
of Domesticity and adopted that of Moksha.
Having indulged in those reflections, Devala, in
consequence of that resolve obtained the highest
success, O Bharata, and the highest Yoga. The
celestials then applauded Jaigishavya...”. (9.50)
Liberation.
Bhuva� Location Soma Tirtha A place linked to the Skanda – Taraka
legend.
Bhu� Tirtha of sage Sarasvata, who was raised in the
womb of the River Sarasvati, taught the Vedas
during a 12 year drought to Brahmanas who had
been scattered and lost their knowledge.
Eventually, 60,000 sages became his disciples
(9.51)
A second tirtha reflecting upon a
drought of 12 years and the havoc it
played on society. Its message
resolves to: “He is great who is
capable of reading and understanding
the Vedas!’ (9.51)
Bhuva� Kuni-Garga, a female ascetic of great piety, after a
long life of austerities decides to leave her body
but is advised by Sage Narada that she cannot
obtain the celestial regions because she has never
married. A man is persuaded to marry her for one
night. And she departs for heaven after blessing
the place.
Officially, “‘He that will, with rapt
attention, pass one night in this tirtha
after having gratified the denizens of
heaven with oblations of water, shall
obtain that merit which is his who
observes the vow of brahmacarya for
eight and fifty years!” (9.52) but, of
course, the real message is one of
social control.
Table 3, arguable and tentative although much of it is, displays some of the wide range of
motivations and messages contained by this text. There are a large number of Tirthas where the main
concern various kinds of wish fulfilment and the granting of some kind of material desire (Bhu�).
Throughout, there is great emphasis on arthav�da, the giving of gifts, and other acts for the material
welfare of Brahmins (Bhu�)67
. There are also lessons concerning social dharma, proper ways to
behave in Society, which may be couched in tales of humans or demi-Gods (Bhuva�). However, more
messages seem to be directed to the individual than the social level. The narrative also contains cases
where a Tirtha’s message concerns only narrow religious tradition and dogma, perhaps mythologised
history as in the story of Skanda (Bhuva�). However, sometimes, couched in example and sometimes
direct exhortation, there are also lessons concerning the behaviour and means to liberation of spiritual
seekers (Sva�). In general, the narrative’s blessings seem to form a trapezoidal structure with a large
number of personal and material blessings at the base, a slightly smaller number of social and narrow
religious blessings above, and a smaller number again of wholly spiritual blessings at the apex. If this
is so, then this pilgrimage may be truly prototypical since it contains and offers most of the goals that
sustain Hindu pilgrimages to the present day.
Haigh, Martin J. 2011. Interpreting the Sarasvati Tirthayatra… Itihas Darpan, 16 (2): pp. 179-193. 190
Conclusion
Shri Balar�ma is known as the God who went on pilgrimage and his did so in His role of leader
and original teacher. His pilgrimage took him along the banks of the river of knowledge, which
although largely hidden from sight, remains visible to the wise and the Holy. The Sarasvati, the Vedic
‘River of Knowledge’, was formerly a mighty stream, known for its capacity to wash away sins, in
these fallen times it is hard to find. In the era of the Mahabharata, however, its route was still
detectable by Holy Brahmins, whose advice even this God follows with attention. Indeed, the
Mahabharata Tirthayatraparva (9.38) itself offers that “Whithersoever the Sarasvati was summoned
by persons of great energy, thither she made her appearance”, so the Goddess is still available to those
who have the knowledge and vision to summon Her. Meanwhile, by partaking of this duty, Shri
Balar�ma both set an example for devotees to follow and blessed both the teachers and seekers of
spiritual knowledge. The Bhagavata Purana (10.79.31)68
adds “The all-powerful Shri Balar�ma
bestowed upon the sages pure spiritual knowledge, by which they could see the whole universe within
Him and also see Him pervading everything”.
Historically, Shri Balar�ma’s Tirthayatra was a Yat’sattra sacrifice. Hiltebeitel argues that the
pilgrimage of Shri Balar�ma and the Yadava clan is a Yat’sattra, ritual fitted to epic ends and, at a
still deeper level, a memory of the former nomadic existence of the Aryan herders69
. However, at
heart, this travelling Vedic ritual was about destruction of the self and as the Kaushitaki Brahmana
(15.1) emphasises, “The Sattra has the self as dakshina. Therefore, day by day, they should mutter:
“Here, let me take myself for a fee for fair fame, for the world of Heaven”70
. Austin71
points out that
the title of Book 17 of the Mahabharata is Mahaprasthanika-parvan, and that “the mahaprasthana, or
“Great Departure”, was a form of self-imposed death or ritual suicide attested in Dharmashastra
literature”72
. More ambiguous is the fact that this pilgrimage is constructed within a Sarpasatra,
dedicated to the annihilation of serpents, while its chief protagonist is the cosmic serpent, Ananta-
shesha. Shri Ananta-shesha, the eternal support and servant of God, evokes the sentiments of both
service and servitude73
. The modern message from these convoluted arguments points to the modern
pilgrim’s goal to achieve greater devotion, their mood of devotional service and wish to destroy the
ego-self that binds them to this material plane and hides the transcendental Truth.
Finally, this note has attempted to add a new perspective based on the mundane preoccupations of
the modern pilgrim for whom Shri Balar�ma’s pilgrimage is an archetype. Deconstructing Ganguli’s
text in terms of a three level model of the blessings offered by each Tirtha suggests that this
Pilgrimage echoes the form and content of the many modern pilgrimages. These blessing messages
are constructed as broad-based trapezoid that is grounded in worldly concerns and desires, rises
through mythology and social tradition, and finally ascends to a kernel of blessings to guide the
spiritual seeker.
Acknowledgements
Errors in this work are the author’s own. However, any positive aspects of the work have benefitted
from the guidance of H.G. Sita Rama Das, Prof. Rana P.B. Singh and my tutors at OCHS, Oxford.
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