Going on a Tirtha- Subhadra Sen Gupta

Part II

The Tirthas of Saptapuri and Chaar Dhaam.

The tirthas of ancient times are mentioned in many books and one of the oldest is the Mahabharata which is one of the largest sources for information on tirthas in the early years of the first millennium. The Puranas, written between the 4th and 7th century AD and books like Kritya Kalpataru of Bhatta Lakshmidhara written in the 12th century also list a large number of places of pilgrimage. The traveler Alberuni who came to India in the 11th century gives descriptions of many tirthas and the Mughal historian Abul Fazl, writing in the 16th century, lists many tirthas in the Ain-I-Akbari. Among all the lists there are ten tirthas that remain the most sacred – the Saptapuri and Chaar Dhaam.

There is a Sanskrit Shloka that Hindu pilgrims recite when they visit tirthas. The simple verse lists the seven greatest tirthas of the land, the Saptapuris.

“Kashi, Kanchi, Maya, Ayodhya, Avantika.
Mathura, Dwaravati chaiva saptaita mokshadayika.”

The shloka says that, Kashi, Kanchi, Maya, Ayodhya, Avantika, Mathura and Dwaravati are the seven puris. And these Saptapuris offer the liberation of moksha. These seven sacred cities are also called ‘mokshapuris’ and they are the tirthas of Kashi (Varanasi, Benaras), Kanchi (Kanchipuram), Mayapuri (Haridwar), Ayodhya, Avantika (Ujjain), Mathura and Dwaravati (Dwarka).

Next to the Saptapuris are the four tirthas of Chaar Dhaam. These tirthas are called dhaam as they are believed to be the sacred abodes of Vishnu and his avatars. The Chaar Dhaams are Badrinath, Puri, Dwarka and Rameshwaram. As the dhaam of Dwarka is also a Saptapuri, it makes it even more sacred. So the list of the holiest tirthas of Hindus comes to ten places of pilgrimage.

In ancient times, pilgrims who ventured out on arduous journeys to the tirthas must have been the oldest travelers in history. For the devout Hindu, the attainment of moksha is life’s truest purpose and so for centuries they have come to the Saptapuris and Chaar Dhaams seeking this elusive liberation. Most of them have managed to visit one or two of the ten tirthas in one lifetime but the dream has always been to visit all of them.

Visiting all the seven Saptapuris is not an easy thing to achieve as the tirthas are spread across the Indian subcontinent. Kashi, Ayodhya and Mathura are in the north in the Indo Gangetic plains of Uttar Pradesh. Haridwar stands at the foothills of the Himalayas in Uttaranchal. Ujjain is in central India in Madhya Pradesh. Dwarka is in the west in the state of Gujarat and Kanchipuram is in the far south in Tamil Nadu.

Click here to view the full content of the articles.

<< Back