Place · ancestral-rites tirtha · India
Pehowa (Prithudaka)
Also known as Pehowa, Prithudaka, Pehoa
The ancient Saraswati-bank tirtha of Prithudaka, named for Prithu, the first consecrated king, and today the subcontinent's chief shrine for pitr-tarpan — the ritual offering to deceased ancestors. The Mahabharata, the Vamana Purana and the Padma Purana all list it among the five great tirthas of Kurukshetra, and Yudhishthira is said to have performed shraddha for his dead relatives here after the war. The Prithudaka Mahatmya text claims the tarpan performed at Pehowa frees ancestors who died unsatisfied.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Tradition
- Standard reference and local gazetteers; ASI, state archaeology and INTACH records where applicable.
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 29.978, 76.583
Connections (1)
- Site withinKurukshetra
Pehowa, the ancient Prithudaka on the Saraswati's bank, is one of the five great tirthas of the Kurukshetra sacred landscape, along with Brahma Sarovar, Sannihit Sarovar, Jyotisar and the Sthanishvara temple at Thanesar. The pitr-tarpan ritual Yudhishthira is said to have performed here after the war ties Pehowa directly to the Mahabharata battle landscape thirty kilometres east, and the whole cluster of forty-eight tirthas is traditionally walked as one circuit over three days in the month of Chaitra.