Vadodara: The winding wiswamitri river, who decided the opposite of Vadodara, owed his name to the respected Sage Vishwamitra, writer Gayatri Mantra.
From the time the first human settlement appeared in Ankotakka (now a number of Akota) to the days when the river winding in the city, Vishwamitri was interwoven with Vadodara who himself named by a banyan tree.
But this city seems to have done a little for the river which makes it the only one in the country to have a healthy crocodile population floating directly from his heart.
The origin of the 2,200 year old city was traced to Skandha Purana.
The Scriptures say that a Saleh Brahman who used to live in Champavati (now Champaner) in the Shankar Forest (now Pavagadh) decided a day to offer his head to Lord Shiva.
But Shiva doesn’t want Brahman’s blood falling to him.
So, he sank into the earth created a big bay.
Brahmarshi Vishwamitra has an ashram in Shankar forest.
One day, Kamdhenu’s sacrical cow falls into this bay.
Lord Shiva suggested the cow to let milk flow from the Udders until he floated to the surface.
When Vishwamitra knew this, he asked the Himadri (now Himalaya) mountain to fill this bay to avoid such an accident.
Some Purana suggested that Himadri ordered one of his sons, Pavak Chakra, to stand on the abyss.
Vishwamitra at the request of his people destroyed Pavak (Pavagadh) and blessed the entire region with the river called after – Vishwamitri.
The river turned out to be an inspiration for wise people to write Gayatri spells.
It is said that this charm song removes poisons from the body.
Ironically, dispose of waste, increased chloride levels on the surface and ground water, have changed some stretches of these river poisons!