Skandapurana 3.2.25

Sūta said:

“Now I will tell another supreme māhātmya of the sacred ford,

how Sarasvatī was brought down from Satyaloka to Dharmāraṇya. / 1

Seeing Mārkaṇḍeya seated comfortably, attended upon by great sages,

resembling the morning sun, learned in all treatises, / 2

embodying all sacred fords, divine, the best twice-born among the seers,

seated on his mat, concentrated, fortunate, venerable, of firm vows, / 3

whose nature was yoga, exceedingly tranquil, holding a water-pot, the lord,

holding a rosary, peaceful, and one who endures until the end of a cosmic age, / 4

unshakeable, endowed with knowledge, tranquil in himself, with a splendour equal to Brahmā,

seeing him thus, fixed in meditative absorption, their eyes blooming with supreme joy, / 5

and bowing with hymns fittingly, the sages spoke to Mārkaṇḍa:

‘O venerable one, at the twelve-year sacrifice in Naimiṣāraṇya, / 6

that river, the daughter of Brahmā, was brought down by you, O holy one;

likewise, the descent of the Gaṅgā to the earth was accomplished right there. / 7

While it was being sung before the sage Śaunaka, the head of the community,

it was proclaimed by the sage Sūta, while others also listened. / 8

Having heard that great narrative, it remains rooted in our hearts—

she who destroys sin and generates merit for living beings even from her sight.’ / 9

Mārkaṇḍeya said:

‘O brahmins, Sarasvatī was brought down by me from Satyaloka

to the Surekhā mountain in Dharmāraṇya, she who is a refuge for those seeking refuge. / 10

In the month of Bhādrapada, in the bright fortnight, on the auspicious twelfth day,

there at the Dvārāvatī ford frequented by groups of sages and gandharvas, / 11

on that day, at that sacred ford, one should cause the offering of rice-balls and other rites to be performed.

One obtains that imperishable fruit given to the ancestors. / 12

This entire great narrative, which destroys sin and yields merit,

which is the pure among the pure, destroying great sins, / 13

the most auspicious of all auspicious things, is the holy water belonging to Sarasvatī.

What holy [object] above in heaven is located beside Prabhāsa?

The water of the Sarasvatī dispels the killing of a brahmin for men.

Men who bathe in the Sarasvatī and propitiate the ancestors and the deities,

and subsequently offer funeral cakes, do not become suckling infants [again].

Just as wish-granting cows grant desired fruits,

so the Sarasvatī is the sole cause of heaven and liberation.

Thus ends the twenty-fifth chapter, named 'Description of the Sarasvatī-māhātmya', in the Dharmāraṇya-māhātmya of the first part of the third section, the Brahmakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.