Purana Bulletin
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The 鈥淧urana Bulletin鈥� is an academic journal published by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) in India. The journal focuses on the study of Puranas, which are a genre of ancient Indian literature encompassing mythological stories, traditions, and philosophical teachings. The Puranas are an important part of Hindu scriptures in Sa...
A Note on Kapalamocana
A Note on Kapalamocana / By Dr. A. Ghosh Director General of Archaeology of India (Retd.) / 325
In the Purana, X. 2 (July 1968), Devendra Handa has describded a tirtha called Kapalamocana in the Kuruksetra region. In the same journal, XI, 1 (January 1969), V. Raghavan has referred to the existence of one or two tirthas of this name in Kashmir. It is certain that a homonymous tirtha existed at Varanasi as well. Thus one of the copper-plates of the Gahadavala ruler Govindacandra (c. A. D. 1114-55) found at Kamauli, District Varanasi, says that the ruler bathed in Kapalamocana-ghatta on the Ganga at Varanasi before making the grant of a village to a Brahmana in samvat 1178, i. e. A. D. 1122 (Epigraphia Indica, IV, pp. 109-11). Prof. Anand Swarup Gupta, Editor-in-charge of this journal, has very kindly drawn my attention to a legend in the VamanaPurana (ed Anand Swarup Gupta, All-India Kashiraj Trust, 1967), adhyaya 3, verses 47-51, about a pond called Kapalamocana at Varanasi. Other references to this Varannasi tirtha in the Puranas are not lacking, see Moti Chandra, Kasi ka Itihasa (Bombay, 1962), pp. 172, 176 and 185. It appears therefore that there were many tirthas of this name at different places. _A. GHOSH