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

اے برہمن، سَپتَگوداوَری میں مشہور ہاٹکیشور معروف ہے۔ وہیں مہاہنس ہے؛ اور پریاگ میں بھی وٹیشور (موجود) ہے۔

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.