Tirtha and Kshetra - India

India

The Indian subcontinent is full of Tirthas and Kshetras.

Allahabad, Varanasi, Mathura, Ayodhya, Pushkar, Naimisha Forest, Kurukshetra, Kedarnath, Badrinath, Dwarka, Puri, Lake Manasarovar and Nashik are some of the most important Kshetras.

The various bathing ghats on the Ganges, Kaveri, Yamuna, Narmada River, Krishna River and Godavari River are important tirthas. One of the holiest tirthas is the island of Rameswaram at almost the southern tip of India. Almost every temple-city there is considered a kshetra.

There are Kshetras of very long standing like Varanasi, Kanchipuram and Haridwar, which are believed by pious Hindus to have the longest continuing life in the history of the human race. He who gives a gift, in a Tirtha or a Kshetra, say the scriptures, shakes off his poverty and he who accepts a gift in such places, purchases poverty for himself. Long pilgrimages are made to such holy Tirthas and Kshetras, the pilgrims practising austerities and often walking on foot great distances into almost inaccessible regions. The Kumbh Mela held once in twelve years at different auspicious dates in different kshetras like Allahabad, Varanasi, Kurukshetra, Haridwar, Ujjain, Nashik (and also in Kumbakonam where it is called Mahamaham), draw lakhs of devotees congregating at the same place to have the holy dip in the respective Tirthas. In Kumbakonam it is all centred round the central Mahamaham tank, which has twenty different tirthas on its banks.