The Pipli well near Zālāwād and the Detroja-vāv near Kolki are well-known for the stimulative effect of their waters on the digestion.[493]
If a dark stone is found in the course of digging a well, the water of that well is believed to have medicinal properties.[494]
The birth of a child under the mul nakshatra endangers the life of its father: but the misfortune is averted if the child and its parents bathe in water drawn from one hundred and eight wells.[488] Such water, if swallowed, is said to cure sanipāt or delirium.[495]
In the island of Shial there is a vāv called Thān-vāv, where mothers, who cannot suckle their children for want of milk, wash their bodices. When they afterwards wear these bodices, these are believed to be able to cause the due secretion of milk.[496]
The most famous of the sacred lakes are Pampa[497], Bindu[498], Pushkar and Sāmbhar near Ajmere, Mān-sarovar near Bahucharāji, Nārāyan-sarovar in Cutch, Rāvanrhad in the Himālayas, and Rāmarhad. The following popular myth is related about Mān-sarovar.
Two kings once agreed that the two children that should first be born to them should marry each other. But it happened that both the kings had daughters. One of them, however, concealed the fact, and gave out that the child born to him was a son. So that when the children attained a marriageable age, they were married to each other according to the agreement.
But the wife found out the secret when she went to stay with her supposed husband, and disclosed it to her parents, who invited the counterfeit son-in-law to their house with the object of ascertaining the truth. The alleged son, however, suspected the design and fled, with a mare and a bitch. On arriving near Mān-sarovar, the animals went into the lake in order to refresh themselves, when there was an immediate transformation; and the bitch and the mare came out a horse and a dog. On observing this miracle, their mistress followed their example and was also turned into a male. The story is still sung by girls in a garabi (song) during the Navarātra holidays.[499]
There is a belief that the ancient golden city of Dwārkā, the capital of god Krishna, still exists in the sea, although it is invisible to the eyes of mortals.[494] A story is told of a man named Pipo Bhagat, who, once perceiving a golden bowl floating in the sea, plunged into the water and saw the golden palaces of Dwārkā and god Krishna resting therein. It is said that he returned with the tide and related his experience to several people.[500]
Similarly, the golden Lanka of Rāvan is still believed to exist under the sea, ruled over by Bibhishan, the brother of Rāvan, and visible only to the eyes of saints and holy persons.[501] It is a common belief that the nether regions are inhabited by a species of semi-divine beings, half men and half serpents, called Nāgs, who possess magnificent palaces under the water.[502] The story of Kāliya Nāg, who resided at the bottom of the Jumnā and was driven from that place by Krishna, is well known.[503] There are a number of mythological traditions in the Purānas of kings and princes having visited these palaces in watery regions, and of their having brought back beautiful Nāgakanyās (daughters of Nāgs) therefrom.[504] For instance, Arjuna married a Nāgakanyā named Ulupi when he was living in exile with his brothers. He also stayed for some time with the Nāgs.
Ghosts and demons sometimes inhabit palaces under the water. Deep waters, unfrequented by men, are the favourite resorts of such beings.[505]