Narada Recounts Sacred Tirthas to Yudhishthira
Yudhishthira, restless with grief and exile, asks Narada to describe the sacred tirthas of the land. Narada answers with a catalogue of holy places — rivers, mountains, and hermitages — each carrying its own power. He ends with Dvaravati, where Krishna dwells as the eternal dharma itself.
Yudhishthira asked Narada to describe the sacred tirthas — the pilgrimage sites that purify those who visit them. He was in exile, stripped of his kingdom, haunted by what had been taken from him. Perhaps he was looking for something he could still reach.
Narada began.
He spoke of Tamraparni, where the gods themselves had once performed austerities, seeking greatness. He spoke of Gokarna, famous in the three worlds — a lake with cool, sacred water, difficult to reach for men who had not purified their souls. Near it stood Mount Devasabha, where the hermitage of Agastya's disciple could be found, full of fruits and roots, known as Trinasomagni.
There was Mount Vaidurya, auspicious and beautiful, rich with gems. And there was Agastya's own hermitage, with roots and fruit and water in abundance.
Then Narada turned to Surashtra.
He described the sacred spots there — the hermitages, the rivers, the mountains, the lakes. The brahmanas spoke of Chamasonmajjana, and of Prabhasa tirtha on the sea, belonging to the thirty gods. There was Pindaraka, visited by ascetics, and the great Mount Ujjayanta, which brought swift success.
Narada told Yudhishthira that he himself had recited an ancient shloka about this mountain. Its words were these: "He who torments his body with austerities in Ujjayanta, on auspicious Mount Surashtra, frequented by animals and birds, attains greatness in the vault of the sky."
And then he came to Dvaravati.
The sacred city was there, on the western coast. And in that city dwelt the ancient god Madhusudana — Krishna — who is the eternal dharma in person. The brahmanas who knew the Vedas and those learned about the nature of the soul all said the same thing: the great-souled Krishna is the eternal dharma. Govinda is supremely pure among all purifiers, most sacred among all things sacred, most auspicious among all things auspicious. Pundarikaksha, the lotus-eyed one, the eternal god of the gods in the three worlds — Hari, whose soul cannot be contemplated — Madhusudana dwells there.
Narada finished. The catalogue was complete. Yudhishthira had been given what he asked for: a map of the sacred, a list of places where a man in exile might still find what he needed. Aranyaka Parva, Chapter 383