Shloka 86
Ārṣṭiṣeṇa’s Siddhi and the Tīrtha-Boons; Sindhudvīpa–Devāpi Brāhmaṇya; Viśvāmitra’s Tapas Begins
मुक्त: कथं चास्य शिरो लग्नं केन च हेतुना । जनमेजयने पूछा--ब्रह्मन! उस तीर्थका नाम कपालमोचन कैसे हुआ, जहाँ महामुनि महोदरको छुटकारा मिला था? उनकी जाँघमें वह सिर कैसे और किस कारणसे चिपक गया था?
muktaḥ kathaṃ cāsya śiro lagnaṃ kena ca hetunā | janamejayena pṛṣṭaḥ—brahman! tasya tīrthasya nāma kapālamocanaṃ kathaṃ abhavat, yatra mahāmuniḥ mahodaraḥ mucyate sma? tasya jaṅghāyāṃ tat śiraḥ kathaṃ kasmāc ca kāraṇāt liptaṃ (lagnaṃ) babhūva?
Janamejaya asked: “O Brahmin, how did that sacred ford come to be called Kapālamocana—the ‘Liberation from the Skull’—where the great sage Mahodara obtained release? And how did that skull become stuck to his thigh, and for what reason did it happen?”
जनमेजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames a classic Mahābhārata motif: burdens caused by wrongdoing or ritual impurity can ‘cling’ to a person, and sacred places (tīrthas) are remembered as sites where such burdens are removed through confession, austerity, and divine/ritual purification—highlighting moral causality and the possibility of release.
King Janamejaya asks the narrator to explain the origin of the tīrtha-name ‘Kapālamocana’ and the backstory of sage Mahodara—specifically, how a skull became attached to his thigh and what causal act or circumstance led to that affliction, culminating in his liberation at that pilgrimage site.