[15][9] Later texts use the word Tirtha to refer to any spot, locality or expanse of water where circumstances or presence of great sages or gurus has made special.
[18] The Dharmasastras and the Puranas, states Kane, assert numerous descriptors for what is holy, including all mountains, all of Himalayas, all rivers, lakes, dwellings of Rishis (sages), temples, cowpens, great forests, and all seas.
[24][25][26] In ancient texts, Varanasi (Benares, Kashi), Rameshwaram, Kanchipuram, Dwarka, Puri, and Haridwar have been mentioned as particularly holy sites, along with geographies where major rivers meet (sangam) or join the sea.
[27][22] The Kumbhamela, which rotates at a gap of three years, between Prayaga (renamed to Allahabad in the late medieval era), Haridwar, Ujjain and Nasik, remain popular into the modern times, with tens of millions of Hindus participating.
[31] Another reason for a Tirtha is the Hindu belief that journeys have rejuvenating potential, to purify the inner state of man, and there is spiritual merit in travel, a theme asserted by the Vedic texts.
[40] According to Kane, many texts asserted that "tirtha-yatra (journey to a holy place) was a popular way for redemption of sins in the case of all classes of men and women.
[46] A pilgrimage place or location in some Hindu texts is also referred to as Kshetra (IAST: kṣētra, Sanskrit: क्षेत्र), literally any "field, area, tract of land".
Kshetra is also an etymon of the Avestan term Xšaθra "[Desirable] Dominion", which holds the semantic field "power" and is also a personal name for a divinity or immortal who comprises one of the Amesha Spentas of Zoroastrianism.
A kshetra need not be distant permanently developed travel site, and refers to any temporary space, such as a wedding area or mandala set up for a worship, that is sacred.
[citation needed] The Vaishnava Puranas enumerates seven sites as the gates of Moksha: Ayodhya, Mathura, Māyā, Kāsi, Kāñchī, Avantikā (Ujjain), Purī and Dvārāvatī.
[52][53] The entire list includes Tirtha and Ashrama in Gujarat, Vana and Aranya in Odisha, Giri, Parvata and Sagara in Uttarkhand, Saraswati, Bharati and Puri in Karnataka.