SOUTH ASIA R E S E A RCH

www.sagepublications.com DOI: 10.1177/026272800802800201 Vol. 28(2): 123145 Copyright 2008 SAGE Publications Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore

PURANIC TEXTS FROM KASHMIR: VITASTA AND RIVER CEREMONIALS IN THE NILAMATA PURANA
Mahesh Sharma
PUNJAB UNIVERSITY, CHANDIGARH, INDIA
ABSTRACT Focusing on the western Himalayan provinces of Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, this article argues that the Indian hagiographic texts of the Puranas should be understood as a nuanced literature that sought to effect a paradigm shift in liturgy and praxis, fusing polity and religion, largely in contravention to the earlier VedicUpanishadic texts and their commentaries, but also building on them. Emphasis on local Sanskrit literature, specifically the Nilamata Purana, which uses popular iconographies of river goddesses, served many centuries ago to reconstruct the geography of the area within the wider context of the subcontinental sacred geography. Keeping within the Puranic tradition, the article focuses on the rituals and ceremonials associated with rivers, while also charting the process by which regional pilgrim centres were formed on their banks, devising a sacred space parallel to the subcontinental cosmos. This reinforces the logic of the sacred river, the worshipped deity, as a process by which brahmanic dominance was asserted in the peripheral areas of early India, or ideologically and politically contested regions such as Kashmir. In the sacrality of the river Vitasta, Brahmanism as an ideology reasserts itself by restating the tradition in relation to its sacral past, creating a new sacred space and devising a sacred icon to reclaim this particular geography for the devout Brahmanas. KEYWORDS:

geography, hegemony, iconography, Kashmir, Kumbha mela, pilgrimage, Prayaga, Puranas, ritual, river-goddesses, rivers, sacred spaces, Vitasta, water festivals

Introduction: Texts as Agents of Change

Historians have paid scant attention to the transition from the Vedic fire-based sacrificial practices to the complex liturgy that evolved in India along with temple image worship in the midfirst millennium CE. In fact, they have taken such practices for

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granted, mostly trying to find linkages with the shrauta practices of Vedic revealed (shruti) literature, as precursors to temple-centred Hinduism and remembered (smriti) ritual. Moreover, theistic Agamic practices have been largely written about as conjuncts to the shrauta practices, not as a nuanced literature that challenged the early hegemonic ritual, intervening to create in turn a new hegemonic ideology across the temporalsacred domain in South Asia. Though Puranas, the genre of popular Sanskrit literature developed in the midfirst millennium CE, focusing on image and related ritual, have been extensively written about, they have not been analysed as tools for what seems like a powerful intervention, a strategy to construct hegemony and dominance that not only replaced the earlier shrauta ritual, but also created new ideological and political centres. Kashmir and Bengal are two such cases, not to mention southern India, which brought to the forefront the notions of new forms of worship and ritual, along with ascendant polities and empires. It is thus argued here that such early religious texts are clearly not without political relevance and were partly designed to usurp new territory and to associate it with the old Hindu cosmos. The Puranas have been largely seen as sectarian liturgical/hagiographic texts, ideologically involved texts that vied for sectarian space, rather than as mechanisms that created or devised such theistic sectarian space with political and ideological intentions. What is being suggested here is entirely the reverse, however, turning the question on its head: These texts are sites that polemicised the past by creating new genealogies, dynasties and histories. They co-opted the existing texts to create conscious homologies that harvested similarity as a legitimating tool, but largely replaced the Vedic fire sacrificial practices without sounding like doing so. That polity and ideology could be so soundly fused to create a dominant hegemony was manipulated by particular textual strategies employed by the compound authors of the Puranas. The dominant question we need to ask, therefore, is not what the Puranas constitute, or who does or did what, but for whom and why. That these texts were agents of change, while also themselves subject to change, is central to our understanding of the process involved in effecting ritualideological transitions over time and space. This article, part of a wider research project, restricts itself only to the motif of the river, a dominant strain in the Nilamata Purana (NP). It is argued how by working out the iconography of rivers through Kashmir and north India, the NP envisions a larger role for the polity of Kashmir. Alternatively, this indicates how a new centrality is provided to Puranic Kashmir which had existed on the periphery of pre-Puranic society.

Literature Review: Dialectical Foundations

Recently, Inden (2000a; 2000b) has tried to address the subject in his analysis of Vishnudharmottara Purana (hereafter VDhP) and Pancaratra Vaisnava strategies to hegemonise the sacredtemporal space, particularly in Kashmir. Inden rightly suggests that certain categories of texts, particularly the Puranas, enmeshed in specific

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circumstances and as articulations of the world in which they were written, are discursive and narrative literary products that can be historically situated as transformative agents. The Puranas also constitute supplementations and are dialogical texts. Such dialogues are mostly dialectical, representing a constant synthesis to arrive at a position through persuasive argumentation, and they are sometimes eristical, seeking to persuade through force if necessary.1 This distinction is perhaps a peep-hole into the creation of hegemony, by fusing ideology and polity (force) to create dominance. These texts, therefore, serve as ideological instruments and political weapons that tempered and manipulated cosmologies and co-opted and altered geographies. Inden (2000a) shows how Pancaratra Vaishnavism gained prominence and control in early medieval Kashmir through the instrumentality of the VDhP, which impinged upon and influenced the north Indian sacred space, as a larger design of the Kashmir rulers eyeing this territory. Inden (2000b: 27) suggests that the VDhP is one of the major texts involved in the rise to hegemony of temple Hinduism at the expense of both the Vedic sacrificial liturgy and Buddhist monasticism. The ontological position of the VDhP, as of early Pancaratras, is bhedaabheda or identity-in-difference, and not non-dualism, as constituting the relationship of god and man (Inden, 2000a: 53). This change has also ritually significant dimensions, bringing a whole paradigm shift. The major change advocated by the Puranas is replacing the symbol of fire, as a central part of Vedic rites, by the symbol of water, signifying the predominant notion of ritual purity in image Hinduism. This also has complex theological ramifications. While the fire ingests the oblations made to the gods, water purifies the individuals who make the oblations. The fire cooks and digests, while the water preserves. The fire destroys impurities, the water absorb impurities into its body. Central to each ritual was the object of worship, linking the unseen and the seen, the imagined and the imaged. This dichotomy required a resolution, teleologically explained through the symbol of the river in the NP.2 That such a powerful symbol as a river emerged in the Indian tradition was reinforced and glorified by stotras or mahatmayas. The most sacred rivers, Ganga and Yamuna along with the lost Sarasvati, were iconographically standardised as water deities and integrated in the veritable Puranic cosmos, reflected in temple architecture, perched on the torana or gate to the cella or garbhagriha of the main deity.3 The river symbol was used to create a sacred space that incorporated larger cosmologies, perhaps a precursor to hegemonic political claims and designs of seventhtenth century Kashmir in the present case. Yet, the symbol of river also coopted the shruti/smriti notion of water as a ritual purifier, the only difference being the new emphasis on water that gradually replaced the fire as the dominant symbol. This article tries to rework some of the grand designs achieved through the local Puranas, usually a precursor to the main Purana or a supplementation to it. Both the VDhP and the NP were written in Kashmir over a couple of centuries. While Indens (200b: 31) work antedates NP to VDhP, we cannot be so sure. Perhaps some parts of both texts were concurrent, while others used the scale of texts, a strategy through South Asia Research Vol. 28 (2): 123145

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which homologies were used to legitimate the key argument.4 While the NP uses the VDhP, the reverse does not happen. Inden thinks this was a deliberate strategy to negate locality, but it appears that the NP text does want to change the local. Rather, the NP vision is Shaivite, while that of the VDhP is Pancaratra Vaishnavism. The NP uses the term Pancaratra only once and is consistent with its vision. Inden thinks that it is a precursor for the ultimate rule of Pancaratra Vaishnavism. This may be so, but I think we have to be cautious with this reworking; over-reading of the texts may also obfuscate their focus. Both the VDhP and the NP play a similar role in creating new cosmologies, appropriating geographies and devising new ceremonials and rituals. Using both texts in conjunction helps to explain why such texts were written and influencedas well as being influenced themselvesby religio-social developments and their political agenda.

The Iconography of Rivers

Though the symbol of river as goddess is well represented (Agrawala, 1970; Awasthi, 1976; Darian, 1978), the iconography of a large number of rivers has not been considered in depth. Keeping with the Puranic tradition, the present article focuses on the ritual and ceremonials, here associated particularly with rivers, perceiving the process by which regional pilgrim centres (tirtha) were established on their banks, devising a sacred space parallel to the sub-continental cosmos. This reinforces the logic of river iconography, the worshipped deity, illustrating the process by which Brahmanic dominance was asserted in the periphery, or in ideologically contested regions such as Kashmir and its western Himalayan neighbour, Chamba. Chamba, the north-western district of Himachal Pradesh flanked by Kashmir in the west and Punjab in the southwest, had a tradition of erecting fountain stones to the ancient water god Varuna. These fountain stones often became sites to make subtle sectarian statements by manipulating and reordering the space occupied by sectarian deities. The enormous 66" high and 7 wide Salhi fountain stone, located near the Sach Pass (at 8412 feet) on the trade route to Pangi and Lahul from Chamba and Kashmir, provides a significant iconographic departure, enabling us to understand the process by which regional rivers were Sanskritised to harmonise with the dominant culturalreligious symbols of the post-Gupta subcontinent. In this fountain stone, the four-armed water god Varuna is relegated to the periphery as the protector of the western realm, holding a noose (ankusha) and lotus (padma) in his right hands, and a mace (gada) and conch shell (sankha) in the left. He is seated on what Vogel (1911: 21624) saw as a horse or a mule, which appears, however, rather like a serpent crocodile. There is an identifying inscription over his head as Lokapala Varun. The focus of the slab is, however, inscribed as Shesha-sayi Vishnu, resting in his yoga-nidra pose over the coiled serpent (shesha), bearing his traditional attributespadma, cakra, sankha and gada; with Brahma seated over a lotus springing from his navel; fanned

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by Lakshmi seated at his feet. On both sides of Vishnu are two panels of water goddesses holding a water-vessel and lotus stalk. The water goddesses are identified by individual inscriptions, for there are more than the distinctive figures of Ganga, Yamuna and the occasional Sarasvati. These other goddesses have a specific iconographic feature identified and differentiated by their particular vehicle (vahana). While Ganga and Yamuna stand on a crocodile and tortoise respectively, the new deities like Indus or Sindhu are characterised by a snake; Vethi (Vitasta or Jhelum river) by a fish, the traditional vehicle of Sarasvati, who is now shown standing on a lotus; Bea (Vipasha or Beas river) rides on a hypocamp; while the vehicle of Satuldhara (Sutlej river) is obliterated. There are two more defaced uninscribed water goddesses, probably the two prominent rivers of Chamba, Candrabhaga/Chenab, and Iravati/Ravi (Vogel, 1911: 21624). While the iconographic novelty and artistic translation is well appreciated as the only one of its kind, evidence of the elevation of the local rivers to the subcontinental Sanskritic tradition is largely based on the early medieval text of the NP that extended the breadth of river iconography.5 The Nilamata or Nila, the blue mountain, is described by the Vayu Purana as varsha-parvata (1.85), a place where Siddhas and Brahmarishis dwelt (Patil, 1946: 310). The text of the NP was composed by Candradeva of the Bhargava gotra between the seventh and eighth centuries in Kashmir. Later parts of the text as available today, however, seem to have been interpolated till the tenth century.6 The verses reflect considerable borrowing from the VDhP, also of Kashmiri provenance and composed around the mid-seventh century, though the influence of other Puranas is palpable. Both texts are thus regional Puranas. The VDhP is also categorised as an upa-Purana and not the main Purana, while the NP may be more precisely described as Kashmira-mahatmaya, a text that glorifies Kashmir, modelled on and borrowing from the Vishnu Purana, the VDhP being conceived as its extension.7 The NP as a virtual Kashmira-mahatmaya explicates the geography of Kashmir while reconstructing and Sanskritising its sacred space. It also links and integrates this sacred geographical identity with subcontinental cosmologies. Hence, a parallel sacred cosmology is now carved out in the Kashmiri mountains and rivers, associating the pantheistic deities with this particular area, also to forge new pilgrim centres, extolling their sacredsacral purport and firming up the mode of worship by contriving a revised grammar of festivals and rituals. The NP, in the process, transcends the larger body of Puranic literature by innovating myths and iconography around rivers, both regional and subcontinental, subtly appropriating the cosmologies and thereby fixing connectivities.8 Iconography Before venturing into cosmologies, a deeper look at the iconography reinforces the evidence of restructuring. Varuna, of the soothing blue hue of lapis-lazuli and adorned in white apparel, is characterised by the VDhP as a four-armed water god, holding a South Asia Research Vol. 28 (2): 123145

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lotus and noose in the righthand, and a conch and jewel-pot in the lefthand. He rides on a chariot of seven swans, with the crocodile (makara) as the motif on his banner. His wife sits on his lap, holding a blue lotus in her left hand, while the right is placed on Varunas shoulder.9 He is flanked by two river goddesses, Ganga to his right and Yamuna to his left. Moon-white complexioned Ganga holds a fly whisk and white lotus, riding another makara, while the serene Yamuna rides on the back of a tortoise (kurma), is dark like the blue clouds, and holds a fly whisk and blue lotus (Pratimalakshana 52.67). The attributes are pregnant with meanings, as explained by the VDhP. The lotus in the hand of Varuna recognises him as the upholder of law, he who orders the cosmos (rita). The blue lotus in his wifes hand represents fortune leading to delight. Similarly, the conch represents wealth; the jewel-pot is the earth, bearing treasure, as Varuna is also the lord of the nether world (Pratimalakshana 52.1416). The seven swans of his chariots are the seven seas.10 The lotus in the hand of the Ganga, however, is representative of its attribute as purifier, representing heaven, while the makara represents happiness. The blue lotus in Yamunas hand is the symbol of majesty, while the kurma signifies time. Ganga bestows success (siddhi), even as Yamuna is majestic (Pratimalakshana 52.19). The NP (256) applauds Yamuna as the destroyer of the noose of Yama (see also Haberman, 2000: 343). It seems that makara is not purely a crocodile, but rather a sea-monster, an amalgam of fishcrocodile, emphasising the association of Varuna with sea/ocean. Owing to such an association, interesting forms have been experimented with while translating the text into sculpture. The iconography of the VDhP may be contrasted with a few contemporary Puranic referents. Varuna, the Rigvedic Sindhupati, is also characterised as a two-handed deity, holding noose and padma alternated with varda pose; or four-handed with attributes of varda pose, pasa or axe, snake, and kamandalu or water carrier. He rides a monster makara, as in the Agni Purana, while the Brihatsamhita has a gander (hamsa) as his vehicle.11 Similarly, the NP shows the Sarasvati on her vehicle, the fish or gander, in Pushkar or the Kailashapati temple, Ellora; on a lotus in the Salhi stone, and peculiarly on a buffalo. The question becomes thus: how fixed were these iconographies at the disposal of the sculptor? Alternatively, why and how were new iconographies contrived? Moreover, innovations manifest regional preferences systematised by Sthal-Puranas such as the NP, thereby masking the ideological contest in the shared vocabulary of values to remould them in the hegemonic brahmanic culture (Chakrabarti, 2001: 135). Often, these innovations were maps of problematic social reality and matrices for the creation of collective conscience (Geertz, 1973: 220). Negotiation and manipulation, therefore, of any contested space ideologically oriented such a collective consciousness, which was brahmanic in content. For instance, the NP (103) formulates that the shepherds should worship god Varuna. Peculiarly, the fountain-stones honouring Varuna were erected in an area where shepherding was vigorously followed. Similarly, in coastal

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areas Varuni and Kurukulla were worshipped as goddesses of boats. According to Lalithopakhyana, Varuni, decorated with water-flowers, was red-complexioned and carried a wine pot and blue lily in her hands, while the spirited Kurukulla was blueblack in complexion, draped in black clothes with hands wet with blood (Rajeshwari, 1989: 345). It must again be emphasised that the tradition reflects and is built upon or influences the existential concerns of the respective society, and, therefore, is bound with an ever-shifting present. Since new concerns are thrown up by the requirements of local societies and communities, assimilative texts like the NP incorporated them and theorised around them, fixing the iconography and assimilating local elements into the broad brahmanical sacral space (Chakrabarti, 2001: 47). The Ganga and Yamuna have a more enduring iconography across the subcontinent, described and depicted as river goddesses, holding a water vessel and lotus, riding a crocodile and tortoise respectively. However, Ganga was deified as an independent goddess (Shakti) in the Skanda Purana, elevated to the status of, perhaps, the Vedic Sarasvati. She is described as four-armed (caturbhuja) and trinetra (three-eyed like Shiva), holding a vessel full of water and a white lotus in her two upper hands, the lower hands being in varda and abhaya mudras.12 In contrast, Sarasvati is known more by her association with male gods in the Puranas, as the daughter of Brahma in the Matsya Purana or the consort of Vishnu, as Pastri, in the Brahmavaivarta Purana. Individually, she is patterned as fair-complexioned with two or four hands, holding a lyre (vina), a manuscript, a rosary and a kamandalu; riding on a swan or peafowl (Awasthi, 1976: 1414). Alternatively, she is seated on a blue seat, symbolising Samaveda, riding on a vulture (garuda). Blue-black in hue and attired in yellow silk clothes, she also carries various Vaishnava attributes like sankha, cakra, gada and abhaya mudra (Rajeshwari, 1989: 19). These are the major motifs of river goddesses, with minor variations, in the entire genre of Puranic literature that has received scholarly attention (Baartmans, 2000; Kumar, 1983; Rao, 1914). Even in Chamba, and other Himachal Pradesh or Kashmir temples, the accepted GangaYamuna iconography has been used, represented as the deities guarding the sanctum sanctorum (Goetz, 1969; Ohri, 1991: 1001). In contrast, the little known NP provides an iconographic formula of 28 rivers encrypted in seven hymns (shlokas), each comprising a set of four rivers. All these river-goddesses sport a standard attribute, a water vessel and lotus, in each of their hands. The characteristic differentiating trait, however, is the vehicle carrying the goddess (vahana), listed in Table 1 to facilitate identification.13

River Sacrality
The NP clearly aims at the glorification of Kashmir, the infusion of a Puranic cosmos to make this an equally sacred territory as other parts of India, as is quite evident from two quotations: South Asia Research Vol. 28 (2): 123145

Table 1 Vehicle crocodile bull buffalo/lotus15 Kashmira Amoghakshi (Sircar, 1948: 29) Sidhida (Sircar, 1948: 29) Sivadharini16/Kala (Sircar, 1948: 28) Hara/Sindhu-Durga (Bhatta, 1963: 116) Uma/Nandini17
18

River Goddesses Goddess Association Sati/Mangala (Sircar, 1948: 27) Saptarupa14

River Goddess

Vahana

Ganga

makarena

Satadru (Sutlej)

vrisaruda

Sarasvati horse/hypocamp elephant lion tiger/snake oxen deer piggyback on man goat/sacrificial vessel peacock sheep

mahesena

Vipasha (Beas)

ashvaruda

Iravati (Ravi)

gajaruda

Candrabhaga (Chenab)

simhena

Sindhu (Indus)

vyaghrena

Devika

gavyaruda

Saryu

mrigena

Mandakini

manushyena

Payoshini

capyajnena

Mahabhaga19/Pingleshvari (Sircar, 1948: 27) Sonakshi (Sircar, 1948: 40)

Narmada

mayurena

Gomati

meshena

Godavari/ Kubjamrika20 gander he-crane/heron camel crocodile/alligator she-crane chamara-deer hog partridge/pheasant cock horse serpent clouds hare fish
23

sarangena Kamakshi/Kamuki (Sircar, 1948: 27) Kameshvari21/Kubjika22 Bhadra (Sircar, 1948: 41) Vogel (1911: 21624) Uma (NP 2601)

saranga-deer

Gaveshvari/Trisandhya (Sircar, 1948: 27, 29)

Kampna

hamsena

Gandaki

bakena

Kaveri

ushtraga

Ikshumati

nakrena

Sita

balakaya

Lauhita (Brahmaputra)

camarena

Vankshu

krodena

Hladini

jivajivena

Hridani

kukkutena

Pavani/Pava

turangena

Sona

sarpagatastaya

Krishnaveni (Krishna)

meghena

Bhuvena

shashakena

Vitasta ( Jhelum)

mina

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Those men obtain fame on earth who go to the goddess Vitasta, endowed with various bridges, decorated with blue and red lotuses, filled with the sound of herds of cows, full of fish and tortoise, possessed of good bathing places. The river that bestows desired objects, possessed of water tasty like nectar, charming to the eyes of men and one that grants boon like a mother. (NP 14424). The Ganga does not excel Vitasta. The only thing that the water of the Ganga has more than the Vitasta is the bones of the dead. The purity of bathing in the Vitasta is similar to the Ganga. (NP 14278).

Kashmir was now conceived as the place of Prajapati, derived from the root Ka, the designation of Kashyapa, the patron sage, who is also Prajapati, the creator (NP 2267). The territory is the body of Sati (NP 245), purified by the river Vishoka, Lakshmi (NP 239). Vitasta is the gift of water by Uma, who here assumes the form of a river,24 to meet Hara (Shiva), in the shape of the river Sindhu, the chief-drain in which all rivers flow (NP 25761). The NP apparently also tries to resolve early medieval competing sectarian ideologies by providing equal spaces to Lakshmi and Uma. The notion of equality needs to be tempered, however, as the NP is basically a Shaivite text. Such a space was devised in the VDhP as well, where Shiva is portrayed as the enumerator of Vaishnava Pancaratra liturgy (Inden, 2000b: 57). Pashupata Shaivism, the other major theistic sect of Kashmir, is subtly co-opted into Pancaratra Vaishnava tradition in the VDhP. Both the NP and the VDhP, along with other Puranic texts, are nuanced. Theistic hegemony is subtly asserted by providing a prominent space to the opponent that also subordinates it to the dominant tradition. Thus Uma, as the river Vitasta, expresses her inability to absolve, for which Lakshmi in the guise of the river Vishoka is implored. It is categorically stated that she is capable of purifying the three worlds. Aditi, the river Trikoni (NP 299), Diti, the river Chandravati (NP 300), the great river Ganga and all other rivers do not bear any comparison to her (NP 2768). Along with Shaci, the wife of Indra, represented here as river Harshapatha (NP 300), all these rivers merge into Vitasta, which, in turn, flows into the Sindhu. At the confluence, Sindhu is regarded as Ganga, and Vitasta as Yamuna (NP 306). The confluence is thus regarded as equal to Prayaga (NP 307), todays celebrated pilgrim centre of Allahabad. The Vitasta supersedes the Ganga, as the Ganga only leads to heaven, while Vitasta paves the path to salvation (NP 322). Quite obviously, sectarian tension has had a bearing on the carving of the Kashmiri sacred space.25 This sacred geography co-opts the entire range of VedicPuranic goddesses by associating them with rivers, creating thereby a new divine hierarchy. Since the goddess motif was often used for regional sacrality, the river metaphor is not unusual at all. In a similar discussion on Bengal, Chakrabarti (2001) concludes that the brahmanic ideological dominance was created by assimilating the local goddesses along with vows (vratas) within the larger Puranic fold. The divisibility of the forms of goddesses and the multiplicity of myth, held together by the conception that all forms are of one Goddess, aided assimilative flexibility. Moreover, co-option of such symbols,

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here again as river goddesses, was to subtly draw on the notional authority of the Vedas and Puranas, the sources that gave birth to the concept (in the scale of texts), in as much as to legitimise the constructed parallel space (Chakrabarti, 2001: 545). The construction of a parallel Prayaga is not an exception, as such co-options were fairly systematic, offering parallel sacral sites. For instance, the meandering Candrabhaga housed such redemptive tirthas as Vaivitalamukha, Shankhamardala, Guhyeshvara, Shatamukha, Ishtikapatha and Kadambesha. Supplication in these pilgrim-centres was said to be particularly propitious on the 13th day of the bright half of Magha in conjunction with Pushya, since on this day, all sacred places, including the seas, go to Candrabhaga. However, the area from Guhyeshvara to Shatamukha was treated as particularly auspicious, equated in holiness to Varanasi and considered even higher than that (NP 1205). Similarly, the territory between Trikoti and Raupyeshvara Hara (NP 1351) or the territory at the confluence of Pavana was considered the same as Varanasi (NP 13779). Like Kashi, the tirtha of Pavana, Cirapramocana, was considered as a gateway to heaven (NP 1380). Like Kashi, it was considered auspicious to die and to be cremated at this place. Likewise, the river Mayuri was as holy as Mathura (NP 1400), while the tirtha at the confluence of Vitasta with Dhanadharini was as holy as Prayaga (NP 13578). The text abounds in such semantic strategies, using similes for creating deft linkages with pan-Indian pilgrim centres and metaphors to appropriate them. Thus, an added dimension is provided to the conception of sacrality and the spiritual meaning of the regional pilgrimage by adopting such textual manipulations. This was not an exclusive phenomenon but a dynamic process. Such linkages, appropriation and networking to construct a parallel sacred geography may also be gleaned elsewhere in the hills, particularly in Kangra, as late as the mid-nineteenth century (Sharma, 1999, 2001: 14570). That the authors were sensitive to the locality is thus demonstrated. People were not encouraged to make subcontinental pilgrimages, rather equivalents were found nearer to home. Perspectives on soteriologies were bound to be affected, with new meanings altering social modes and local society. Purification Rituals Ritual cleansing by bathing in the consecrated waters was considered the most auspicious act, a prelude to offering homage and worship at the tirtha or pilgrimage centre that the river banks housed. For this, different configurations were worked out, a strategy by which a large part of the territory was designated as sacred, paving way for and accommodating diverse sects and practices. One such category consisted of saptaGanga, worshipped on the first of Caitra. These seven were: Bhagirathi, Pavana, Hladini, Hradini, Sita, Vankshu and Sindhu. The seven major Sarasvatis, holding pure water of the mountain, were also worshipped: Suprabha, Kancanakshi, Vishala, Manasahrda, Sumeru, Oghanada and Vimalodaka (NP 6212). These seven rivers constituted the Kashmiri Sapta-Sindhava or seven sacred seas, paralleling the Vedicepic conception,26 based on variations in the Markandaya and Vayu Puranas,27 from South Asia Research Vol. 28 (2): 123145

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which the NP seems to have borrowed the concept. This number, moreover, conforms to the mythical seven seas surrounding seven continents.28 By such deft connections, through co-option, hierarchy and association, authority and instruments of legitimisation were simultaneously constructed. Bathing in Vitasta was considered highly auspicious on the twelfth day of the lunar fortnight. Similarly, bathing at the confluence of Vitasta and Sindhu during the eclipse provided merit equal to Sannihati in Kurukshetra,29 if followed by donating a pair of shoes, an umbrella, a pitcher, a pair of clothes and offering meals (NP 8002). Not only bathing at the confluence, but also carrying clay from the river-bed for the purpose of ritual cleansing, when one could not physically visit, ensured the same merits as bathing at the confluence (NP 8056). One could attain heaven by performing fire-oblations (homa) on the banks of Vitasta after taking a dip in its water. The fire-sacrifice culminated in making an offering to the Brahmanas, consisting of boiled rice mixed with pulses with butter-ghee. He who bathed thus for a year attained salvation (moksha) (NP 784). Even the waters of Vitasta, like water from the Ganga, were ritually administered to the dying, to ensure a passage to heaven (NP 1432); for Varuna, who regulates the cosmos, knows the man who merely bathes in the Vitasta (NP 1437). These homas were not analogous to the Vedic fire-sacrifices (yajnas), but were reworked to leverage the new image and temple ideologies. That shrauta fire sacrifices became a vestige in the Puranic ritual, and were not altogether done away with, further exemplifies the adaptive strategies of the Puranic texts to accomplish smooth liturgical transition. Confluence of Rivers The confluence of rivers gained a special sacral meaning. Not only the confluence of Vitasta with Sindhu was considered redemptive, propitious and auspicious, but graded merit and absolution could also be attained by bathing in its tributaries, the sites of pilgrim centres, and particularly at their confluence with Vitasta. The most sacred, hence meritorious, sin-bearing, and boon giving, were tributaries like the Sarasvati, Trikoni, Vishoka, Harshapatha, Sukha, Candravati, Sugandha, Punyodaka, Kularani, Krishna, Madhumati and Paroshni (Stein, 1899: 96109). All these rivers merged with the boon-giver and celestial Vitasta (NP 14467). Thus, at the confluence with Madhumati was the pilgrim centre of Gridhrakuta. Bathing here ensured heaven, while by paying homage at this tirtha one gained the same merit as would accrue from serving or donating 1000 cows (NP 12767). Similarly, bathing at the confluence of river Krishna ensured merit worth 1000 cows and worship at its tirtha, Cakresha, a merit worth performance of a Vishnushtoma, the fire-sacrifice to Vishnu (NP 12789). The tributaries of these rivers were equally sacred. One could, thus, attain Rudraloka by bathing at the source of Madhumati; gain merit of 100 cows by bathing at Uttramanasa; of 10 cows at lake Haramunda (NP 1289); merit of a Pundarika at Apaga (NP 1385); of an Agnishtoma at lake

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Manasa on the full moon night of Ashadha (NP 1386); merit of a Vajapaya at Mahapadma (NP 13878). The full list illustrates the comprehensive conception of sacrality, motivated by rewards, spiritual or mundane, to be gained out of pilgrimage. This is significant to understand the transition from Vedic sacrificial tradition to the Puranic image liturgy. First, it gives a nuanced meaning to the fire-sacrifice, which now becomes sectarian, as in Vishnushtoma, Rudrashtoma or Agnishtoma. Second, the Vedic fire-sacrificial rituals were replaced by much simpler and inexpensive rituals of bathing and temple worship, as practised in these tirthas. While gods became seen, the rewards too became immanent. Space is devoted not only to the tributaries of Vitasta, but other rivers as well. For instance, bathing in Vipasha is mentioned;30 it provided absolution and eternal bliss to the pure who visited the Kalikashrama centre that it housed (NP 1079). Similarly, Devahrida granted exoneration and heaven. Its confluence with Vipasha, near Karavirapura, was visualised as the meeting of Hara and Haririshvara (NP 109). Iravati not only granted absolution but also housed 60,000 sacred places on its banks. The river was particularly worshipped in Revati nakshatra and on the eighth day of the lunar fortnight (NP 11011). One such site was at its confluence with Devika that housed a tirtha extending four kroshas in perimeter (NP 114). Every water-well and pool within this perimeter was considered holy (NP 11219). In this way local tirtha-kshetras, a whole sacred territory, as well as pilgrim centres (tirthas) were constructed and legitimised on the banks of rivers or their confluences.31 Tirthas and Pilgrimage Rites The tirthas were the centres where religious rites were performed. Usually such rites consisted of fire oblations (homa), liturgy (puja), vows (vrata), fasts (upavasa), charity (dana), bathing (snana), libations (tarpana), or offering of funeral cakes to the manes (pinda-dana), ancestoral rites (shraddha), and/or austerities (tapas). Scriptural study or recitation, and rites de passage were also performed there, particularly tonsure, death cremation and other funeral rites, accompanied by appropriate honorarium (dakshina) and donations (dana) made to the presiding priests of various brahmanic ranks (Dubey, 2001: 74). Dana, too, had differential meanings: from pindadana or offering rice-balls to the manes, to kanyadana or offering daughters to worthy Brahmanas as wives, or donating money, land and jewels. The merit/rewards were similarly worked out in detail. Providing salvation was the most significant characteristic of a riverbank tirtha. The Skanda Purana ordains salvation to even birds and animals living on these riverbanks. Cessation from the cycle of re-birth, redemption and freedom from bad karma or sins, the gaining of merits and heaven prioritised the pilgrimage (Kumar, 1983: 23270). Thus, the Kulait inscription refers to a Chamba ruler of the early tenth century, Sahila Varmans visit and patronage to ritualists at Kurukshetra (Vogel, 1911: 1827). Jasata, another Chamba ruler, undertook a pilgrimage with other chieftains to Kurukshetra as recorded South Asia Research Vol. 28 (2): 123145

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in Kalhanas Rajatarangini (Stein, 1961 [1900]: 319, 151214, 10836). Pratap Singh undertook a pilgrimage to Badrinatha in the early thirteenth century, where he distributed jewels among the priests. At Kedaranatha, the chieftain made land grants to a Brahmana after performing a penance as well as undertaking a purifying fast for six nights (Chhabra, 1957: 4850). Subsequent rulers or princes of Chamba undertook pilgrimages to purify self and family, especially after someones death. For instance, Anirudha undertook a pilgrimage to Prayaga, carrying the mortal remains of his mother (Chhabra, 1957: 1023). Ganga, as a repository of mortal remains, bones and ash, had already gained currency among Chamba rulers by the early thirteenth century (Chhabra, 1957: 735). During the course of pilgrimage, these people not only donated, performed austerities and rituals, but also undertook vows (vrata). Thus, when the local ruler of Baijnath, in Kangra, undertook a pilgrimage to Kedaranatha around 1204, he vowed that he would thereafter not co-habit with the wives of his subjects.32 Against these royal pilgrimages to subcontinental centres, what has the NP to offer? Absolution, boons, heaven, merits, and redemption! Besides, it offers sacred banks for cremation, as doors to heaven; fearlessness from death; river-confluences to perform libations (tarpana) during eclipse, and rites of passage (NP 31622, 5013, 510). Finally, tirthas release one from the cycle of rebirths and provide salvation (moksha). With this regional perspective in mind, NP univocally announces, as cited above, that the Ganga does not excel the Vitasta, it only provides heaven, while the Vitasta grants salvation (NP 1428). This reminds people that the river is a Goddess, the consort of Sharva (Shiva), who after assuming such a form is even higher than Sharva (NP 314). Vitasta, the extensive, serves the people whose goddess the river is. Such a river commands celebration. It is a well-known fact that as early as Paninis Ashtadhyayi, river festivals (nadi-maha) and pond festivals (avata-maha) were celebrated (Agrawala, 1970: 67). By the time of the Mahabharata, the Ganga had acquired the sacred most position, known to the epic as Deva-nadi and Loka-nadi, the daughter of Himacala and consort of Shiva (Trivedi, 1981: 7980), who gave birth to Skanda (Chatterjee, 1970). Consequently two important festivals, Ganga-maha and Skandamaha, came to be celebrated (Agrawala, 1970: 68). The Harivamsha provides graphic detail of a Samudra-maha as well (Agrawala, 1970: 129). It is in this context that Vitasta-maha acquires special significance, demonstrating that the NP does not miss much while emulating the Epico-Puranic structures of the sacred place. Prayaga Festivals Later celebrations also seem to have been modelled on Prayaga festivals. Scholars have expressed reservations regarding the founding of kumbha celebrations, the most famous of all water festivals, particularly at Prayaga.33 However, the conception of kumbha bathing on the banks of Ganga, when Jupiter enters the constellation KumbhaAquarius, appears to have been popular since the Atharvaveda. Ritual festivities were

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systematised and promoted by the Puranas and the Bhavishya Purana mentions such celebrations.34 The frequent mention of Prayaga by the NP, described as teeming with sacrifices and destroyer of all sins (NP 245), reflects its popularity at least by the end of the tenth century, even as Vayu Purana ascribes the performance of shraddha or funerary rites on the banks of Ganga and not at the confluence in Prayaga (Patil, 1973 [1946]: 315). Chamba rulers were visiting the Ganga at Haridvara on such occasions in the early thirteenth century.35 The meaning of festivals or celebrations is crucial here. Perhaps, ritual bathing took place on such occasions, though these were not of the same type as Ganga-maha, or Nadi-maha referred to earlier.36 Such mass ritual festival or fair was organised in the lunar month of Magha at Prayaga known as Maghamela (Dubey, 2001: 120). This, perhaps, is the model that the NP emulates?

The Sacred Vitasta

The sacred status of Vitasta was structured in a week-long festival in the lunar month of Shravana. The ceremonial began with the propitiation of Varuna, the god of waters (jaleshvara), on the fifth day, along with Uma (Vitasta is also Uma) and Dhanada, the god of wealth (NP 784).37 On the sixth day, virgins (kaumarih), representing both the goddess and the river, were purified by bathing; they were anointed to be decorated on the seventh day (NP 785). On the eighth, people worshipped Ashokika, the one who brought merriment and cheers, after ritual cleansing by taking a bath and anointing themselves with vermillion powder. They celebrated by organising musicals (NP 7867). Free use of meat and wine was allowed in ceremonials, recommended particularly in some, though not in this case. On occasion, sexual intercourse was also recommended.38 On the ninth day, people offered flowers, food, incense, bed and seat along with blankets. Only food mixed with sugar was consumed on this day, a way of purifying the body as a requirement for the next performance (NP 788). On the tenth day, Uma, the territorial goddess and the river, was worshipped as a bride with incense, food, earthen-lamps, garlands, curd, grain, sugar, safflowers, saffron, collyrium and bangles (NP 78990). On the twelfth day, the community leaders, priests and wise men observed a fast and propitiated Hari (NP 796). The ritual offerings on this occasion (NP 526) consisted of sesame products (tilavacca). Bathing in the confluence on the twelfth not only absolved one of bad deeds and sins, but also brought merits comparable to the merits gained from the performance of a Rajasuya-yajna (NP 141113). Moreover, if the twelfth happened to be the astral wonder arrangement when the Sun is in conjunction with the planet Buddha (Mercury), it was considered particularly auspicious. More so, when after bathing, donations were made along with an offering of funeral-rites to gain imperishable merit, everything performed on that day becomes imperishable (NP 799800). However, if the twelfth happened to conjunct Sun with Mars, then one could bathe oneself to a mastery over the world (NP 803). On this day vocal musical performances were held and ceremonies related to touching auspicious things were performed (NP 524). On the thirteenth South Asia Research Vol. 28 (2): 123145

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day, the birthday of Vitasta was observed and people fasted (NP 527, 7912). The river was propitiated by offering perfumes, garlands, eatables, earthen lamps, flags, red threads, bangles, various fruits, offering gratifying fires (yajnas) and donations made to Brahmanas. It was obligatory that people bathed in Vitasta for seven days, three days before and after the birthday. On the fourteenth day, Maheshvara was propitiated by bathing the linga after removing its woollen covering, the icon was worshipped, a night-long vigil was kept and people were engaged by reciting stories of Shiva and his incarnations (NP 530). On the fifteenth day, a mock sacrifice of sheep made of flour was offered and meals consisting of ripe barley and cakes of sugar, cooked with sesame, were consumed (NP 52733). The post-birthday celebrations revolved around dramatic performances, lasting a further three days (NP 7915).

Conclusions
The NP re-orders the regional space (kshetra) of the land of the Paishacas,39 the flesh eating demons, to that of Brahmanas and makes it a central locale:
In the centre (of the Kashmir valley) flows, making it as it were the parting of hair, the Vitastathe highest goddess visibly born of the Himalaya. (NP 26)

This turns Kashmir from a land of mobile population, with half yearly settlement, to a place of permanent habitation following brahmanical norms and practices.40 The NP seeks to construct brahmanic conformity in the face of diverse practices, both contemporary and earlier, of Mahayana Buddhism and the tantric influences on both Shaiva Pashupata and Vaishnava Pancaratra ideologies. The implicit strain in the text is a pointer to such tension, also resulting in interpolations to accommodate the growing Shaiva Agamic influence.41 It mediates by drawing upon the authority of the sanctioned Vedic/Puranic texts, strategically using the scale of texts to assimilate and construct local pilgrim centres, empowered by necessary rationalisations and legitimising sanctions. Parallel developments have been shown for Bengal (Chakrabarti, 2001: 93). Cosmologies, therefore, are appropriated and iconographies fixed, to construct the instruments of legitimisation that paves the way for temple-centred pilgrim centres. Brahmanic rites and norms were asserted. For instance, even flesh-eating demons are said to avoid meat for five days during the celebrations of Vishnu during Karttika (NP 462), reflecting that the brahmanic values had not yet been totally internalised. But the overarching aim is to homogenise the tirtha ritual, the brahmanic domain. Purification of the body was central to these tirthas. As OFlaherty (1976: 1538) has argued, women and not men were recipients of sin or sin-bearers, hence river goddesses became the motif for purging sinners, ultimately a mission to purify all people.

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The emphasis on purity is a formulaic way of exploring and appropriating subcontinental tradition, represented by Ganga and Yamuna and replicated in all Puranas. By assimilating and devising local river iconographies, the abstract is given a form to be worshipped locally by appropriate rites and celebrations. This is exemplified in Vitasta, a river that is the Goddess (Uma), in which ultimately all rivers, and hence all goddesses, merge. Such a construct can then purge the entire region (the Kashmir kshetra), destroying sin for ever, purifying the three worlds (NP 2378, 323). While doing so, however, also a political vision is mapped for a Kashmir kingship that desired to rule over the entire earth, a nuanced way of devising hegemony over seventh to tenth century north India. If we read the NP and the VDhP in conjunction, certain common strategies become more explicit. At one level, these texts position their temple liturgies as replacements for older Vedic sacrifices. The NP fashions sacred space, the VDhP devises temple space for images whose iconography it standardises. In this sense, one would agree with Inden (2000a; 2000b) that the NP antedates the VDhP. These new temple styles, as Inden (2000b: 57) argues, hoped to be recognised, first, as the emblematic universal rule, making Kashmir the Universal Centre. Second, this transition is managed by using the scale of texts, whereby Vedic homologies are used to uphold the image of rituals or temple liturgies from a theistic standpoint. Third, this apparently had significant political motives as well, as the scale of texts was used as much to appropriate as to negate. The VDhP, for instance, attached the Vedas to itself to replace the Bhagavatas (Vaishnava theists worshipping Krishna) by Pancaratra liturgy that existed too far outside the Vedas according to the smartas. If the authors of new texts could succeed in using the legitimating authority of the Vedas for this purpose, they could also homogenise the imperial formation of seventh to tenth century India. Thus, these texts were powerful interventions, dialectical but also erestical, as in the present case of the VDhP. Fourth, the transition as well as hegemony was constructed as much by formulating positions, by a scale of texts, as through strategic silence. While the NP devotes some verses to Buddhism, the then dominant ideology in Kashmir, the VDhP totally blanks it out (Inden, 2000b: 54). Buddhist ideas were either silently appropriated or rejected as a conscious strategy, without entering into a dialogue, or through a scaling of texts, as happened in the case of the epics or the Vedas. Finally, in the NP and the VDhP, as well as other Puranas, the discursive and the narrative ordering of the contents of the texts makes more sense if we see them as a dialogical response to the political and soteriological situation as it obtained at the time of their writing. The texts were not just a passive response to ongoing events, but also sought to influence them, they constituted rather powerful interventions. Thus, the NP as well as the VDhP subtly intervened to formulate an alternative space and liturgy in temples and in sacred geography, hegemonising yet goading the polity and the kingship implicit in its body. In that sense both the NP as well as the VDhP are definitely transformative.

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Notes
1. Dialectical is used here not in a Marxian or Hegelian sense, as a series of oppositions that are negated, but after Collingwood (1933), who saw dialectics as a process in which two agents in a relation of non-agreement come to agreement through a process of discussion, argument and debate. Sometimes one of the agents might claim victory by using external means, like lies, threat, deceptions; then the process is thought of as eristical (Inden, 2000a: 50-1). 2. Baartmans (2000: 2135), while dealing with the Vedic and Puranic myths, examines different words for water and its cosmic dimensions and linkages. For Ganga as an organic symbol, see Eck (1982) and Darian (1978). 3. For a larger debate on river and pilgrimage see Choudhary (1998), Morinis (1983), Bharadwaj (1973) and Dubey (2001). 4. Homology is a similitude and not similarity, only the essence is similar. So some shlokas, removed from their original context and attached to the new body of the Puranas, were used as authority to signify similar practices and to legitimate deviant or new sets of rituals. Such culling of evidence, called a scale of texts, is a process chronising and anachronising the body of existing literature to the main text. Inden (2000a: 12) suggests that a particular text is itself one momentary effect or result of the textual practices in which agents engageLater agents and their texts overlap with those of their predecessors and contemporaries and, by engaging in a process of criticism, appropriation, repetition, refutation, amplification, abbreviation and so on, position themselves in relation to them. 5. See Nilamata Purana (1976). While there are two earlier translations of the NP, the edition and translation by Kumari (1976) is based on a number of manuscripts from libraries in Srinagar and Jammu. Kumari (1968) emphasises that the NP is a complete Purana based on the five-fold pancalakshana classification, but may be reminded that while the NP eschews the chronology of the kings altogether, and the cosmogony and manavantras are treated at best in a sketchy manner, explication of the sacred geography and rites forms 85 per cent of about 1453 verses. 6. Inden (2000a: 31) places it between 550 and 750 CE. For the present article, we have only used the iconographic portion of the relevant text, called Pratimalakshana (1991) independently published in Bhattacharyya (1991). 7. For a recent formulation on Mahapurana and Upapurana, particularly the regional Bengal Puranas, see Chakrabarti (2001: 4480). Particularly on Upapuranas, see Chakrabarti (2001: 4751 and 97). 8. On the revised Puranic sacrality of rivers, see Kinsley (1987: 18796). However, such innovations were strategies employed to identify with the regional population addressed in the text, constituting an instrument of legitimation to construct ideological dominance, as also argued by Chakrabarti (2001) for Bengal Puranas and Sharma (2001) for Himachal. 9. Pratimalakshana (52.35, 89, 11). His blue hue matches with the colour of the transparent water as a reflection of the sky. As water is white in its natural state, his garments are white in colour. His wife is here named Rati (Pratimalakshana, 52.13). 10. This is the direct interpolation from the VP and is also reproduced in the NP. The seven seas conform to the seven continents, each sea separating the continents held in the

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11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.

19. 20. 21. 22. 23.

24.

25.

26. 27.

28.

centre by Mount Meru. Each sea is characterised by a particular water body, of salt, milk, butter, curdled milk, rice-gruel, sugarcane juice and spirituous liquor (Pratimalakshana, 52.1718). Also found in Rigveda VII-64-2; Agni Purana 15.15; Brihatsamhita 57.42; see also Sahai (1975: 457). See also Skanda Purana IV.1.2714145; Awasthi (1976: 213). While the vahanas are provided in one composite code, the goddess association is spread throughout the text, as noted separately (NP 15965). Brihan-nila Tantra, chapter 5, and Pranatoshani Tantra, 2378. See Sircar (1948: 29). Contrast this with the iconography outlined by Vogel (1911). Singh and Nath (1995: 101). Skanda Purana 53.198.75; Kumar (1983: 391). Kumari (1976) translates this term in NP 161 as goat. However, since the Shatapatha Brahmana the word capya has been used for a kind of sacrificial vessel (see MonierWilliams, 1983 [1899]: 388b). Skanda Purana 53.198.75. Sircar (1948: 27, 29). Also found in Yoginitantra (Sircar, 1948: 13). Kalika Purana 62.58 (Sirkar, 1948: 13, fn). Kumari (1976) translates it as partridge. However, Jiva-jiva is a kind of pheasant; while Jiva-m-jiva is a Greek partridge. In Buddhist literature it is a mythical bird with two heads (Monier-Williams, 1983 [1899]: 422bc). She is further eulogised in NP 314: Assuming the form of river called Vitasta, O Goddess, the daughter of the mountain, You are not a river (but) an ascetic lady, wife of Sharva, even higher than Sharva. At the confluence of the Vitasta with the Sindhu river, Yamuna said to Ganga (NP 3079): At Prayaga my name is appropriated to you and in Kashmira your name has been appropriated by me. Ganga replied: I must again appropriate your name when I am designated as Sindhu. Such tension is resolved also by Vallabha (Haberman, 2000). In the Bhishmaparva of the Mahabharata (9.37.38), the alternative seven rivers list includes Sindhu, Sarasvati, Yamuna, Ganga, Narmada, Godavari and Kaveri (Agrawala, 1970: 67). The Markandeya Purana lists sapta-sarasvatyah as Suprabha, Kashmira, Kancakshi, Vishala, Manorama, Oghavati, Surenu and Vimaloda. All major rivers are also listed in its enumeration of Bharata (Nileshwari, 1968: 217-21). The Vayu Purana refers to the myth of seven Gangas, as seven streams held by a lake, Bindusara, caused to be dropped by Bhagiratha. The southern stream was called Bhagirathi, the three eastern ones were Nalini, Hridani and Pavani, while the three western ones were Sita, Cakshu and Sindhu (Patil, 1973 [1946]: 470); the sapta-Ganga areas, Gauri, Kumudavati, Sandhya, Ratri, Manojava, Khyati and Pundarika (Patil, 1973 [1946]: 606). NP 60910 refers to seven continents, Jambu, Shaka, Kusha, Kraunca, Shalmali, Gomeda and Pushkara. The seven corresponding seas are lavana-salty, kshira-milky, ajnya or ksirajnyabutter, dadhimandah-curd, surodaka-wine bearing, akshurasodara-sugar cane-juice and nectar or tasty-svadudaka (NP 60910).

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29. NP 1313 details that Sanniti is a multitude of holy places where all tirthas and seas and lakes go in the end of the dark half of the month. The performance of Shraddha, here at the time of the eclipse, is equivalent to the performance of 1000 Ashvamedhayajnas. 30. Dikshit (n.d.: 614) identifies it with a river mentioned in Rigveda IV.30.11, described as healer. Following Nirukta (IX.25.3), he opines that it was earlier called Arjikiya and Urunjira, which both seem to be the sanskritised names of a local mother goddess. 31. This was a standard Puranic strategy. For instance, Devi Bhagavata Purana (7.38.530) refers to such tirthas on the banks of the Narmada, Ganga, Godavari, Gomati, Vetravati, Vipasha, Vitasta, Shatadhrutira, Candrabhaga and Iravati, among others. A similar strategy is adopted by Skanda Purana (53.198.66) mentioning Amoghakshi on Vipasha, Hatakeshvara on Devika (71.278.667), and Mulasthana on Candrabhaga (6.76.2), among others. Cross-references legitimised the construction of a regional sacred geography. 32. For details see Bhler (1892: 11011). Such instances can be multiplied. 33. Maclean (2003: 876) argues that the Kumbha mela first started in Haridvara, that only at Haridvara today, too, the ritual bathing begins with the movement of the sun into the Kumbha-Aquarius constellation. In Allahabad, this ritual was started and promoted by the colonial administration, with a first reference to 1870. Maclean (2003: 8848) further argues that Kumbha celebrations have been confused by Magha-mela, and the local people adapted their pilgrim centre to the changed political and economic climate. 34. Rai (1993: 1922), along with Dubey (2001: 12532), discusses the constellations and considers that Kumbha at Prayaga was held in Magha and points to the consequent introduction of Nasik and Dhara at Ujjain. 35. See Chhabra (1957: 735). For the Ganga Kumbha of 1819, when 430 people died in a stampede at narrow ghats and the role of the colonial administration in the widening of ghats, for protest against administration in 1916 against utilisation of the Gangas water for irrigation, the conception of purity versus cleanliness, and the politics of pollution see Kelly (2000). Prior (1993) discusses sanitation problems faced during colonial times and their solution during the Kumbha/Maha-Varuni mela at Haridvara in 186092. For a very general account of modern Kumbha celebration at Haridvara, see Das and Singh (1990). 36. Prior (1993) uses the term Maha-Varuni mela for Kumbha in 1892 at Haridvara, which raises the question whether the Kumbha was perhaps known by another name at different sites, Kumbha being only on astronomical category. She also discusses the hazards of organising these festivals at such a massive scale, when 25,000 people bathed in 1892 at Haridvara for two days. 37. While the ceremonials begin on the fifth day, the celebration of the birthday of Vitasta occurs on the thirteenth day. But since the Shaivite calendrical rituals of the goddess and of Shiva were also organised within this period, the actual ceremonial has become conflated to the entire first half of the lunar month. The actual dates given here are the Pratipada or the days falling within the lunar reckoning in the month of Shravan. 38. For instance, Brahma was worshipped during the sowing season in the Phalaguna month with the flesh of water-born (fish) animals (NP 571). Nikumbha was also worshipped by offering meat and other non-vegetarian food put in cow-pans and placed below trees, on crossings, rivers and mountain-tops. The sporting men passed the night in a courtesans place listening to music and dancing, though vowed to celibacy (NP 57881) Similarly,

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in Nikumbha festivities a carnivalesque atmosphere prevailed (NP 544), while drinking was common and allowed even in major festivities (NP 542). 39. Nila was ruled by a water-born demon-chief called Jalodbhava. The people were harassed particularly by his grandson, Nikumbha, who had the following of five crore pishacas (Patil, 1973 [1946]: 21012). The cosmic associations are also devilish, and Nikumbha had once also desolated Kashi (Patil, 1973 [1946]: 32930). 40. NP 212 refers to people who stay for six months, replaced by those who are permanent inhabitants (NP 21718). The text indicates brahmanisation by telling the people in NP 225 that [t]hose men in this country who will follow the good customs laid down by you (brahmanas) will be endowed with animals and grains. Even as late as the compilation of the Vayu Purana (78.2), the area north to the Sindhu, not exactly Kashmir but its neighbourhood, was considered non-brahmanic, where ashramadharma does not prevail and performance of shraddha was prohibited. 41. For instance, pancaratra is mentioned, but only once, in NP 433.

References
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Dr Mahesh Sharma is a Reader in History at Punjab University in Chandigarh, India. He was a Fulbright Senior Fellow at the Centre for India and South Asia, UCLA in 200708. Address: Department of History, Punjab University, Chandigarh 160014, India. [e-mail: replymahesh@gmail.com]

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