Skandapurana 16.28

The Goddess said: / All this wonder, O Lord, has been heard by me from you, / the greatness originating from Maheśa in full detail. / Now you ought to tell properly of Somanātha: 1.

By what rite is he to be visited? How should the pilgrimage be performed by men? / At what time, O Mahādeva, and what are the observances? 2.

Īśvara said: / In late autumn, winter, or spring, O radiant lady, / and whenever the inclination arises, or funds are available, or a festival day occurs, 3.

just then the pilgrimage should be undertaken; the inner attitude alone is the cause there. / Having undertaken some observance in his own house, O woman of excellent complexion, 4.

bowing mentally to Rudra and performing a śrāddha according to the rules, / circumambulating the home, silent and well-composed, 5.

self-restrained and regulated in diet, one should then set out on the path, / abandoning desire and anger, as well as greed and delusion, 6.

envy, malice, and fickle longing—thus should the pilgrimage be performed by men. / The pious journey to a sacred ford is superior even to sacrifices. 7.

Whatever fruit one attains through sacrifices such as the Agniṣṭoma / that are performed with generous priestly gifts, that very fruit one obtains through the journey to a sacred ford. 8.

Having reached the terrible Kali age full of sin, / righteousness and heaven are attained in this [age] by no other means / except for a pilgrimage to Someśa, O great goddess; there is no doubt. 9.

The men who undertake the pilgrimage endowed with purity and faith / are fulfilled in purpose in the Kali age, while those who do otherwise are in vain. 10.

Just as there is no reservoir of water equal to the great ocean, / so there is no sacred ford equal to the field of Prabhāsa. 11.

Without fasting for three nights, without visiting sacred fords, / and without giving gold and cows, a man is born poor. 12.

Sacred fords that are inaccessible, difficult, and impassable / should be reached with the mind by one who desires the goal of all sacred fords. 13.

He whose hands, feet, and mind are well controlled, / and who possesses learning, austerity, and renown, enjoys the fruit of a sacred ford. 14.

Self-restrained, regulated in diet, devoted to ritual bathing and muttered prayer, / intent on vows and fasts, he enjoys the fruit of a sacred ford. 15.

Free from anger, O goddess of gods, truthful in character, firm in vows, / and regarding all beings as oneself, he enjoys the fruit of a sacred ford. 16.

As for sacred fords such as Kurukṣetra that can be reached by chariot, / a brahmin may go to those alone; no carriage-fault attaches to them. 17.

Those virtuous people endowed with wealth who are devoted to the remembrance of sacred fords, / through gift and spiritual union at a sacred ford, obtain a superior fruit. 18.

Those who are poor and destitute of wealth, [yet] devoted to traveling to a sacred ford, / obtain the fruit of a sacrifice even without accumulations of wealth. 19.

For all classes and for residents of all stages of life, / a sacred ford is known to grant fruit; no doubt should be entertained here.

He who goes on account of another business and performs ritual ablution at a sacred ford / does not obtain the fruit of a pilgrimage; his fruit is only that of the ritual ablution.

Going on foot to a sacred ford is called supreme austerity in this world; / but having done that with a conveyance, one would obtain only the fruit of ritual ablution.

When one enables another according to his ability to make a pilgrimage to a sacred ford, O goddess, / with his own wealth and conveyance, his fruit is fourfold.

Those who, having journeyed to a sacred ford, subsist on alms with controlled senses, / obtain a tenfold fruit at the sacred ford, O great goddess.

Without umbrella and shoes, eating alms, with senses fully subdued, / a brahmin is freed from dreadful sins born of mortal sins.

Alms are not food cooked by another, nor are alms an acceptance of gifts; / alms are equal to the drinking of Soma; therefore one should subsist on alms.

In this world a sacred ford is twofold: created naturally [or] made; / self-manifest, such as Prabhāsa and others, and made, which is fashioned by the gods.

In a self-manifest great sacred ford, which by its own nature is greater, / if one accepts [gifts], all forms of gift-acceptance have been committed in that sacred ford.

For one who abstains from accepting gifts, the fruit of the pilgrimage is tenfold; / by him gifts are given, and the gods are well gratified through sacrifices,

by whom, having reached the sacred field, supreme abstention has been observed. / But he who, out of greed for material things in the sacred field, takes pleasure in accepting gifts—

for that wicked soul there is neither the other world nor this world. / But if a brahmin, feeble in livelihood, accepts a gift, / he should give a tenth part of what is earned; thus he does not fall there.

A śūdra who adopts the guise of a brahmin and, having accepted a gift / even as small as grass or wood, falls into the depths—

into Kumbhīpāka and the like, among crores of great hells, / for the duration of fourteen Indras, O fair-faced lady.

Therefore, gifts should certainly not be accepted, how much less by other brahmins! / In a sacred ford of either kind, whether made or unmade,

endowed with one's own proper disposition, one enjoys the full fruit. / He who travels on another's food obtains a sixteenth part.

For the disabled, for the blind, for the lame, and for the wandering ascetic, / travel by conveyance for a valid reason is prescribed; whence [could it be allowed] for an unblemished brahmin?

A pilgrim of a sacred ford who provides ritual ablution, food, and drink / to his carriers attains the complete fruit arising from the sacred ford.

If with effort he does not give a sixteenth part of his acquired wealth, / he should give even a fifth part among the twice-born there.

Bestowing merit willingly on deities, gurus, / and parents, he obtains eightfold that very fruit.

Ritual ablution, gifting, silent prayer, burnt offering, Vedic study, worship of deities— / merit should be given everywhere; demerit is never given anywhere.

A father, a mother, a brother, a friend, or a guru— / designating whom one plunges at a sacred ford, that person receives a twelfth part.

Having made an effigy out of kuśa grass, one should plunge it into the waters of the sacred ford; / designating whom, O great goddess, that person receives an eighth share.

Those brahmins weak in wisdom who accept great gifts / become trees, [or] are born as brahmarākṣasas in the form of twice-borns.

One should not take pleasure in accepting gifts relying on the power of the Veda; / whether from ignorance or negligence, karma burns [him], nothing else.

Having touched funeral wood, and likewise a sacrificial post, / or having touched one who sells the Veda, only a ritual ablution is prescribed.

He who recites a command, and he who gives a command— / both of these evildoers become dwellers in the depths of Pātāla.

He who recites a command wishing to seize an acceptance of gifts, / especially at a sacred ford, is indeed a killer of a brahmin and none other. / Standing at a king's gate, one must not sell the Veda.

Better that the lowest of the twice-born should kill cows and eat their flesh, / better that he should live like fish, than that he sell the Veda; / a sin equal to the murder of a brahmin has never been nor will ever be.

Better that he do even that, O goddess, than sell the Veda, / especially at a sacred ford, and likewise in a great sacred field.

A pilgrim of a sacred ford who refuses a gift being offered / makes the sacred ford truly sacred and purifies his ancestors.

A sin committed elsewhere is mitigated at a sacred ford; / a sin committed at a sacred ford cannot be removed anywhere at all.

A pilgrim of a sacred ford who guards himself like a vessel of oil— / that self-controlled brahmin obtains the unspilled fruit of the sacred ford.

Whosesoever cooked food he eats, whether little or much, / to that person he, having bathed while residing at the sacred ford, gives half [his fruit].

A brahmin pilgrim of a sacred ford who does not beg even when distressed, / truthful in speech, absorbed in contemplation, is a benefactor of the sacred ford.

In the Kṛta age it is Puṣkara, in the Tretā likewise Naimiṣa, / in the Dvāpara indeed Kurukṣetra, and in the Kali age Prabhāsa.

A man who would stand on one foot for a thousand ages, / and one who makes a single pilgrimage to Prabhāsa—whether they are equal or not [is questioned].

Having arrived at this sacred field, O fair-faced lady, in its central region, / leaving behind conveyances, men must travel on foot.

Having rolled on the Loṭhanī where the deities rolled, / then dancing, laughing, singing, assuming the attire of a pilgrim, / one should go to the god Someśvara, having first seen Kapardin.

Seeing such a person standing turned toward Someśvara, / ancestors are constantly pleased, and grandfathers shout with joy:

“Born in our lineage, he has set out toward the god to deliver us!” / Having gone to Someśvara, O goddess, one should first shave the head.

Fasting at the sacred ford should be observed properly; understand from me: / there is no sacred ford equal to Gaṅgā; there is no destination equal to a Vedic sacrifice.

There is no recitation equal to the Gāyatrī, no fire oblation equal to [that with] the vyāhṛtis; / and in the water there is nothing that destroys sin equal to the Aghamarṣaṇa.

There is no merit equal to non-violence; giving is superior to accumulating; / there is no austerity equal to fasting, and likewise none equal to resorting to a sacred ford.

O Queen of the gods, there is nothing greater than fasting at a sacred ford; / it pacifies sins and grants what the virtuous desire.

Fasting is especially prescribed in the sanctuary of a deity; / fasting is said to be the supreme austerity for a brahmin in this world.

Eating at the sixth mealtime is declared by the wise to be the supreme austerity for a śūdra; / for those born of mixed castes, [a fast of] one day is proclaimed.

If a śūdra should ever perform austerity beyond [eating at] the sixth mealtime, / ruin of the kingdom and great calamity for the king must then be understood [to follow].

A śūdra, eating at the sixth mealtime, should practice austerity according to his ability. / A śūdra must not gather darbha grass, nor drink the milk of a brown cow.

O lovely woman, he must not eat from the central leaf of the Brahmā tree [palāśa]; / he must not utter the praṇava mantra, nor partake of the sacrificial cake.

He should have neither a tuft of hair nor a sacred thread, nor speak Sanskrit speech; / he must not recite the word of the Veda, and he must not practice a three-night fast.

Success in rites for a śūdra surely comes through mere salutation. / One who practices what is forbidden sinks down along with his ancestors.

A man by whom the eleven sense-organs are truly restrained / obtains the fruit of the sacred ford; any other man merely partakes of distress.

One who performs śrāddha to the ancestors and takes a ritual ablution at the sacred ford, / and works for the benefit of living beings, he will enjoy the fruit born of the sacred ford.

A hypocrite, one who is ever greedy, or one devoted to another’s wife / who makes a pilgrimage to a sacred ford—that man becomes a sinner.

Knowing this, O great goddess, one should undertake the pilgrimage according to the rules, / having first fasted at the sacred ford, endowed with faith and firm in vow.

If one desires one’s own welfare, one should not eat; / a brahmin must never eat food from another on that day.

Vehicles such as elephants, horses, and chariots, land, cows, gold, and the like— / he may accept all that, but he must not take a meal.

The merit is a hundredfold from raw food, whether eating it or giving it. / Therefore, O fair-faced woman, one should fast at the sacred ford there.

For one who is observing a vow, for a pilgrim to a sacred ford, and especially for a widow, / when eating another's food, O goddess, the fruit belongs to the owner of the food.

And for a woman who is a widow, I shall declare the rules of pilgrimage: / saffron, sandalwood, betel, and garlands;

all red garments, beds and mattresses, / conversation with uncultured people, and eating twice [a day];

showing herself to men, laughing in the dark, / noisy shoes, dancing, and [frivolous] movement she must avoid;

keeping long hair, applying collyrium and ointments, / associating with unchaste women, and showing off learning she must abandon.

She should take a ritual ablution daily and wear white garments. / An ascetic, a student of the Veda, and especially a widow:

they consider betel, honey, and meat to be equal to drinking liquor. / By avoiding these, O goddess, one obtains the full fruit of pilgrimage.

The Goddess said: / What austerities are declared by men in the sacred field of Prabhāsa? / What gifts are given, at which sacred fords, and in what manner?

The Lord said: / Austerity was supreme in the Kṛta age; knowledge is desired in the Tretā; / in the Dvāpara, sacrifice was blessed; giving alone is [supreme] in the Kali age.

Sages and other people in the Kṛta age, having gone to the sacred field of Prabhāsa, / practiced austerities such as the kṛcchra, cāndrāyaṇa, and others.

In the Kali age, gifts are given to brahmins according to the rules. / Reaching the sacred field of Prabhāsa, the fruit of austerities is obtained.

The Weighing of a Man, the Cosmic Egg, the Earth, the Wish-Granting Trees, / the Golden Cow of Desires, and likewise elephants, horses, and chariots;

the Jewel Cow, the Golden Horse, and the Seven Oceans, / the Pot of Great Elements, and the ones named the Universal Wheel and the Wish-Granting Creeper:

a king should give these sixteen great gifts at Prabhāsa. / Grain, jewels, jaggery, gold, sesame, cotton, sugar,

clarified butter, salt, and silver—these are recorded as the ten mountain [gifts]. / Jaggery, clarified butter, curds, honey-water, fresh water, milk, sugar,

One of these gifts should be given at each sacred ford separately, / or all together at once at the confluence of the Sarasvatī and the ocean.

One's entire property to a very learned man, or a house with furnishings, / much or even little, should be given to brahmins at Priyamelaka.

At whatever sacred ford one finds a liṅga and a sacred ford with pure water, / having first performed the fire rite there, an excellent gift is commended.

The libation to the ancestors and gods, śrāddha, a gift with a sacrificial fee, / and the gift of a cow at each sacred ford is the fixed, natural rule.

At renowned, distinguished liṅgas, the gift of a bull is prescribed. / One should perform ritual ablution, anointing, and worship of the deities.

One should worship the terrace with devotion, and likewise smear it [with cow dung]. / One should whitewash the palace temple and restore what is dilapidated.

The vow-observer should make a flower garden and a pure well for bathing, / [and make] lavish gifts to brahmins and to the one who performs the deity's worship.

In every pilgrimage to the gods, this rule applies: / one should restore a ruined sacred ford, clean it, and proclaim its fruit.

At a famous [ford], a great gift; at a middling one, a middling gift; / the gift of a cow at all sacred fords; or gold as a substitute: / the gift of gold is indeed the substitute for all gifts.

Having done this with devotion, a man obtains the fruit of his birth. / I shall describe the gifts at the sacred fords, and which [gift] is given on which lunar day.

At Prabhāsa, on the first lunar day, an auspicious gift of gold should be given; / on the second, cloth; and on the third, land.

On the fourth lunar day, one should give grain, and on the fifth, a tawny cow; / on the sixth, a horse, and on the seventh, one should give a female buffalo there.

On the eighth, having given a dark bull endowed with auspicious marks, / on the ninth, one should give a house, as well as a discus, a conch, and a mace.

On the tenth, all kinds of perfumes, and on the eleventh, a pearl; / on the twelfth, O lady of good vows, food, and coral according to rule.

On the thirteenth, women should be given; on the fourteenth, one should bestow knowledge; / on reaching the new-moon day, one should give all gifts.

Having thus given a gift, one obtains ten times the fruit.

The goddess said: / Those who come to the sacred field of Prabhāsa devoid of devotion and gifts, / and devoid of ritual ablution and mantras—tell [me], what is their fruit?

Īśvara said: / Whether rich or poor, with mantras or without mantras, / all who meet death in Prabhāsa go to the abode of Śiva.

Those men who die devoid of mantras and devoid of dharma, / to them, O beloved, I give one very great aerial chariot.

According to their ritual ablution and gifts, men attain the supreme state: / some through the power of ritual ablution, some through gifts;

some through prostration to the liṅga, some through worship of the liṅga; / some through the power of meditation, some through the power of yoga;

some through the chanting of mantras, and some through austerity, O auspicious lady; / some through renunciation at the sacred ford, and some according to their devotion.

These and many others—the highest, the lowest, and the middling— / all go to the city of Śiva in aerial chariots resembling the sun.

With hands marked by tridents, and all riding bulls, / surrounded by hosts of divine apsarases, they disport themselves through my power.

Thus, according to their devotion, I give imperishable fruit. / Prabhāsa is unblemished; it is not tainted by dharma or adharma.

Whether they practice dharma or adharma, they go to Śiva, without a doubt.

O goddess, even a man who has been blind since birth, / if he dies in my sacred field, is honored in the world of Rudra.

O goddess, he who has been deaf since birth, / if he meets death in Prabhāsa, becomes my own.

Now, therefore, I shall declare the rule for touching the sacred fords: / consecrated with a mantra, the sacred ford becomes present.

First, one should touch the pure water of the sacred ford with the syllable Oṃ; / then, plunging in, one should bathe in conjunction with the spiritual mantra:

“Oṃ, salutation to the God of gods, the dark-throated one, the staff-bearer, / to Rudra, whose hand is auspicious, the discus-wielder, the creator, salutation!

Sarasvatī and Sāvitrī, Mother of the Vedas, Night: / make your presence here in this sacred ford, O destroyer of sins!” / This mantra is declared for all the sacred fords.

Having uttered this and bowed, one should perform the ritual ablution according to rule; / then, O lady of good vows, one should observe a fast on that day.

That lunar day should be fasted on for one year by those intent on devotion.

The goddess said: / At which sacred ford should ritual ablution first be performed by men who have arrived at the sacred field of Prabhāsa? / O great god, tell me that in detail.

Īśvara said: / Well, I shall tell you of the first sacred ford of great splendor, / where ritual ablution is performed first by men; hear that from me.

Thus ends the twenty-eighth chapter, named 'Description of the Rules for Pilgrimage to Sacred Fords', in the first [part], the Prabhāsakṣetramāhātmya, in the seventh [section], the Prabhāsakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand [verses].