Narmada

Narmada

"[the one] giving pleasure, enjoyment"
also known as Śāṅkarī, Revā, Pūrva-Gaṅgā.

The river that passes through the state of Madhya Pradesh between ridges of mountains and hills of Vindhya and Satpura, starting at Narmada Kunda on Amarkantak Hill and flows into the Arabian Sea, Gujarat state. 

Many references about Narmada can be found in the Puranas, "Mahabharata", "Ramayana", and in works of Ptolemy. Although Narmada is not mentioned directly in "Rigveda", however, her status as the wife of Purukutsa and mother of Trasadasya (Mandala 4, Anthem 42) – one of the most glorified king-heroes of "Rigveda". Also the fact that the battle of Indra and Vritra, described in "Rigveda" and “Bhagavata Purana”, took place on shores of Rasa, allows to make an assumption, that Rasa is Narmada and is the oldest of the seven sacred rivers.

According to the legend, Narmada Kunda was formed from Shiva’s sweat. According to "Skanda Purana", once Shiva and Uma performed a severe tapas on top of Rikshasaila (Amarkantak), the sweat from tapasya flowing down from Shiva began to accumulate and as a result formed a pond (kunda) from which a beautiful girl appeared. All Gods were fascinated by her. Therefore Shiva called her Narmada – "giving pleasure". She was also called Shankari – daughter of Shiva.  

According to another legend, Brahma accidentally dropped two tears on the ground and the Narmada River and the Son River appeared from them. Son River begins just a kilometer from Narmada Kunda.

The story of Kurma Purana tells that Son and Narmada were married. Narmada, eager to learn what her fiance looked like, sent her friend, the Johila River, to look at Son. To her chagrin, Johilla and Son were captivated by each other. When this news reached Narmada, she was terribly upset, hurried away from Son, speeding up her current in westerly direction, plunging her pain and suffering upon the rocks on her way to the Arabian Sea. “Shiva Purana” says that Narmada is so holy that every year on the seventh day of Vaisakha month, Ganga comes as a black cow to bathbathe in Narmada to be purified from the sins of millions of people.   

Along the Narmada River there are many important places of pilgrimage: Amarnath, Omkareshwar, Lakshmi Narayan in Bhopal, Mahakaleshwar in Ujjain, Jawaleshwar.