Shloka 23

Sacred Abodes of Vishnu & Shiva — Catalogue of Vishnu and Shiva’s Sacred Abodes (Tirtha-Mahatmya within the Pulastya–Narada Frame)

Devanagari script

सप्तगोदावरे ब्रह्मन् विख्यातं हाटकेश्वरम् तत्रैव च महाहंसं प्रयागे ऽपि वटेश्वरम्

Transliteration

saptagodāvare brahman vikhyātaṃ hāṭakeśvaram tatraiva ca mahāhaṃsaṃ prayāge 'pi vaṭeśvaram

Translation

Wahai Brahmana, di Saptagodāvara Hāṭakeśvara yang termasyhur dikenal luas; di sana pula Mahāhaṃsa; dan di Prayāga juga ada Vaṭeśvara.

Speakers

• Narrator/teacher addressing a Brahmin interlocutor (vocative: ‘brahman’); within a didactic listing of tīrthas and their presiding forms

Primary Deities

• Shiva
• Vishnu

Key Themes

• Sacred geography as a map of divine presence
• Tīrtha-yātrā (pilgrimage) and shrine-identification
• Śiva epithets tied to landscape markers (river, tree, confluence)

Verse Rasa (Emotional Flavour)

{ "primaryRasa": "adbhuta", "secondaryRasa": "shanta", "rasaIntensity": 0, "emotionalArcPosition": "", "moodDescriptors": [] }

FAQs

What is the function of this verse within Vāmana Purāṇa’s geography-oriented material?

It operates as a gazetteer line: it names specific tīrthas and immediately pairs each with a recognized presiding form (often an Īśvara-liṅga title), enabling pilgrims and reciters to ‘locate’ divinity across the subcontinent.

Is Hāṭakeśvara necessarily a Śiva shrine?

The suffix -īśvara strongly signals a Śaiva identification (a liṅga or Śiva-form). In tīrtha catalogues, such titles typically denote a local liṅga with a distinctive epithet (here, ‘golden’/hāṭaka).

Why is Prayāga mentioned alongside a banyan-associated deity (Vaṭeśvara)?

Prayāga is not only a river-confluence but also a complex sacred landscape with tree-shrines and liṅgas. ‘Vaṭeśvara’ encodes a specific micro-site (a vaṭa/banyan locus) within the larger Prayāga tīrtha-field.