Page:Gódávari.djvu/276

250 Drákshárámam: Four miles south by east of Rámachandrapuram; population 11,213. Contains a private chattram for feeding Bráhmans, a police-station, a sub-registrar's office and a large cattle-market. The union of which it is the chief village also includes Vélamapálaiyam, Tótapéta, Jagannáyakulapálaiyam and Végayammapéta. Two Múchi wood-carvers do particularly good work, and a little weaving of tape and cloths is carried on.

The village is noted for its fine temple and for its sanctity. Its name is said to be more correctly 'Daksharáma' and to mean 'the Garden of Daksha.' According to the well-known story in the Sivapuránam, this Daksha was a Bráhman, the father-in-law of Siva. Thinking that he had not been properly treated by that god, he performed a yágam (sacrifice) without inviting him to be present. His daughter attended uninvited, he treated her discourteously, and she accordingly plunged into the fire of the sacrifice. Siva burst into a sweat on hearing the news, and from this perspiration was born Vírabhadra, who went and killed Daksha. Orthodox Bráhmans will not perform a yágam inside the village, as it is held to be an ill-omened place. The real centre of the religious interest of Drákshárámam is the temple of Bhímésvara-svámi, It contains a particularly big lingam, some fourteen or fifteen feet high. This is supposed to be part of a lingam which broke into five pieces and fell at five holy places, namely at Bhimavaram or Bhímaráma in Cocanada, Pálakollu or Kshíra-ráma in Kistna, Amarávati or Amara-ráma in the Guntúr district, and Kumára-ráma, which is not identified. It is supposed to have been erected by the sun and worshipped by the seven sages who made the seven mouths of the Gódávari.1 So it is sufficiently holy. The seven sages are supposed to have each brought water from their respective rivers underground to the tank at Drákshárámam, which is called the sapta Gódávari, 'seven Gódávaris,' There is a sacred bathing ghat in this tank which confers in a condensed form all the sanctity which is to be obtained by separate baths in each of the seven rivers.

Like many other holy places in this and other districts, the town is called the southern Benares. It is supposed to have been founded by the sage Vyása, and a rávi tree and a lingam planted by him are still shown. So great is its sanctity that a night's halt in it is believed by some to render