Skandapurana 6.3.225

The venerable Mārkaṇḍeya said:
Then, at the distance of one krośa, one should go to the excellent Alikātīrtha.
A gandharva woman named Alikā was ill-behaved and crooked in intention. (1)

The granddaughter of Citrasena, she went to the seer Vidyānanda;
she chose him, was accepted by him, and stayed with him for ten years. (2)

For some reason, she killed that husband while he was asleep;
having gone, she reported it to her father Ratnavallabha. (3)

Cast out by her father and mother, and reviled by many, O king:
'You are a killer of embryos, you are a killer of your husband; do not show your face! (4)

You slayer of a brahmin, go away, most sinful woman! Banished from our home, leave!' (5)

Mārkaṇḍeya said:
Thus filled with grief and bewildered, having been rebuked by them both,
she resolved to give up her body upon reaching some sacred ford somewhere. (6)

Inquiring about sacred fords from brahmins, O Yudhiṣṭhira,
and having heard of the sin-destroying sacred ford at the confluence of the Revā and the ocean, (7)

she performed austerity there, O son of Pṛthā, abstaining from food, conqueror of her vows,
through the kṛcchra, atikṛcchra, pārāka, mahāsāṃtapana, and other penances. (8)

By means of cāndrāyaṇa penances and brahmakūrcas she emaciated her body.
Thus a hundred and fifty years passed in austerity, O king, (9)

for her as she sought purification through meditation on Śiva, worship, and the like.
Then, after a few days, knowing her utmost persistence,
Śiva, urged by Pārvatī, was deeply pleased and said: (10)

Īśvara said:
'Daughter, do not act rashly; your body is now purified.
I am pleased today by your austerity; choose a desired boon.' (11)

Alikā said:
'If you are pleased, O Lord of the gods, and if I am deemed worthy of a boon,
then to me, scorched by the fire of manifold sins, grant supreme purification! (12)

You alone are the master of me who am masterless; you alone are the teacher of the worlds,
the uplifter of the wretched and helpless, the refuge of all embodied beings.' (13)

Īśvara said:
'Fortunate woman, your body is purified; do not grieve at all.
Having established me here in your own name, you will then go to heaven.' (14)

Having spoken thus, the Lord of the gods vanished right there.
Then Alikā too, having bathed with devotion, established Śaṃkara, (15)

and, having given gifts to brahmins, attained an exalted world.
Meeting her father and mother, O Yudhiṣṭhira, (16)

and honored with affection by them and by her relatives, that Alikā then,
mounted upon an excellent aerial chariot and adorned with divine garlands, O king, (17)

attained the realm of Gaurī and even today rejoices in her companionship.
From that time forth, O son of Pṛthā, that [shrine] became renowned as Alikeśvara. (18)

At that sacred ford, whatever woman or man, O Yudhiṣṭhira,
having bathed, worships with devotion Mahādeva united with Umā, (19)

freed from various sins, attains the world of Śaṃkara.
Mental, vocal, and physical sin committed in the past— (20)

all of that disappears by constantly feeding twice-born men.
And by offering a lamp before the deity, one is not overcome by illnesses. (21)

By presenting an incense-burner, an aerial chariot, a bell, and a water-pot
to the deity, O lord of kings, one will attain the realm of Indra. (22)

Thus ends the two hundred and twenty-fifth chapter, titled 'Description of the Māhātmya of the Alikeśvara Sacred Ford at the Confluence of the Revā and the Ocean,' in the Revākhaṇḍa of the fifth Avantyakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.