Shloka 28

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

Devanagari script

गोकर्णे दक्षिणे शर्वं वासुदेवं प्रजामुखे विन्घ्यशृङ्गे महाशैरिं कन्थायां मधुसूदनम्

Transliteration

gokarṇe dakṣiṇe śarvaṃ vāsudevaṃ prajāmukhe vinghyaśṛṅge mahāśairiṃ kanthāyāṃ madhusūdanam

Translation

In southern Gokarṇa (he is) Śarva; at Prajāmukha (he is) Vāsudeva; on the peaks of the Vindhya (he is) Mahāśairin; and at Kanthā (he is) Madhusūdana.

Speakers

• Unspecified in the provided excerpt (Adhyaya 63’s itinerary-style enumeration).

Primary Deities

• Shiva
• Vishnu

Key Themes

• Shaiva–Vaishnava co-presence in pilgrimage geography
• Mountain and coastal tirtha typologies
• Name-as-map: epithets encode location
• Pilgrimage orientation across India (coast–mountain–interior)

Verse Rasa (Emotional Flavour)

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

FAQs

Why are both Śiva and Viṣṇu named in the same verse?

Adhyaya 63 functions as a pan-Indic pilgrimage map. Such catalogues often present Śiva and Viṣṇu manifestations side-by-side, reflecting a practical yātrā logic (what to worship where) and a theological inclusivity where multiple deities sanctify the landscape.

What does ‘Vindhya-śṛṅge Mahāśairin’ convey beyond ‘Śiva on a mountain’?

It encodes a specific kshetra-identity: the Vindhya range is treated as a sacral massif, and ‘Mahāśairin’ marks a recognized local form—‘the great mountain-resident’—appropriate to a peak-shrine or hill-linga tradition.

Can ‘Prajāmukha’ and ‘Kanthā’ be confidently identified today?

They are best treated as Purāṇic toponyms that may correspond to older settlement/tirtha names, sometimes preserved in regional traditions and sometimes shifted or lost. The text’s primary function is to anchor worship-forms to named loci, even when modern identification is uncertain.