From City of Śiva to World of Śiva –Stock Expressions in a Māhātmya in the Brahmapurāṇa

Abstract

Māhātmya texts focused on specific locales impart information which may be both mythological and geographical in nature. These texts connect narratives with place, sanctifying their locations, and as such they are especially important in understanding religious developments in historical South Asia. A common characteristic of Māhātmyas is repetition, especially through the usage of what we may call “stock expressions.” That is, expressions which are repetitive, of a general nature, and shared with other texts. Although the use of stock expressions may reflect the simpler nature of the language and composition of Māhātmyas compared with other, more complex genres of Sanskrit literature, it is misleading to assume that this simplicity is merely the result of a less learned authorship. In this paper, I look at a Māhātmya focused on a site called Kṛttivāsa, said to be in Bhuvaneśvara and compared to the Kṛttivāsa in Vārāṇasī – the city of Śiva. The Māhātmya is found in Brahmapurāṇa 41 and quoted in the Tīrthacintāmaṇi of Vācaspatimiśra (16th c. CE). I examine how repeated stock expressions about reaching the world of Śiva are used in the Māhātmya to increase the intensity of the text’s message. In other words, I argue that we should not understand these stock expressions simply as a result of a less skilled authorship—they have been deliberately employed as a narrative device which increases the effectivity of the text in creating localized sanctity