Skandapurana 14.48

Pulastya said: / One should go there to the unexcelled sacred ford called Kulasaṃtāraṇa, / where a man who has bathed properly saves his entire family.

Endowed with faith, O best of kings, / a man should deliver through gifting there ten ancestors, ten future descendants, and himself.

Formerly, there was an evil-doing king named Aprastuta; / he had neither charity nor knowledge, neither meditation nor righteous conduct.

While he ruled, the people never experienced happiness; / he was constantly lusting after others' wives and intent upon severe punishments.

Whether justly or unjustly, he amassed wealth; / that greatest of evil-doers also had innocent people slaughtered.

Then, having reached old age, he still did not attain tranquility. / But after some time, he was awakened by his ancestors, / who, extremely distressed in hell, approached him as he slept.

The ancestors said: / We were of pure conduct, always devoted to righteousness, / practicing charity, sacrifice, and austerity, and devoted to our own wives.

By our own deeds, O ember of your family, we attained heaven as was deserved. / Having obtained you as an evil son, we have entered hell. / Therefore, having performed some auspicious worship, deliver us all!

Because of your deeds, O sinful soul, we have taken refuge in hell. / Ten future descendants shall also go to hell, and likewise you.

Having spoken thus, all those ancestors, deeply sorrowful, / went back to hell; and that king woke up.

Then, overcome with grief, remembering the words of his ancestors, / he wept upon rising in the morning. His wife addressed him:

Indumatī said: / Why, O tiger among kings, do you weep so loudly? / Is there welfare in your kingdom, or in your body, or in the city?

The king said: / At the end of a dream today, I saw my father and grandfather; / O queen, I saw those ancestors and their elder brothers grieving.

I was reproached by all of them: 'Because of your such deeds, / because of your actions devoid of righteousness, we have landed in a terrible hell!

Furthermore, ten future descendants will go [there], and you as well. / Therefore, having performed an auspicious deed, deliver us from this misfortune!'

Having been spoken to thus by the ancestors, O lady of fair complexion, I awoke. / Because of that I have fallen into sorrow, remembering their words in my heart.

Indumatī said: / This that you were told by your ancestors, O great king, is true. / I do not recall any good deed performed by you in the past.

Just as ancestors are saved by having a good son, O king, / so they go to hell through an evil son; there is no doubt about this.

Summon the best of brahmins who are learned in the treatises on dharma; / consult them and do what is best for the ancestors along with yourself.

Then that king brought many brahmins / who knew the truth of the Vedas and Vedāṅgas and were learned in the treatises on dharma. / Together with his wife, he spoke humbly to these well-wishers:

The king said: / By what deed, O best among the twice-born, can ancestors residing in hell / be delivered by a good son and go to heaven? Let this be clearly spoken!

The brahmins said: / By means of a pitṛmedha performed according to prescribed rule, O ruler of kings, / those residing in hell go to heaven, even if they should be great sinners.

The king said: / Let all the twice-born initiate me, who observe the vow for that purpose. / Whatever is to be done in this matter, let it all indeed be declared!

Thus addressed by that ruler of kings, those truthful brahmins / together told the king what was prescribed for the sacrificial rite:

O best of kings, an initiation should be taken after first performing a preliminary rite / for the purification of the body; then it becomes conducive to welfare.

You have engaged in sinful conduct since childhood, O king, / [and accrued] countless sins; therefore, undertake a pilgrimage to sacred fords.

When you have bathed in all the sacred fords, O best of kings, / you will become eligible for the sacrifice through that expiation, not otherwise.

Go to all those sacred fords that exist on the face of the earth, / such as Prabhāsa, and bathe with a focused mind.

Travel to impassable places in mind, giving the best of gifts. / By that, any inauspiciousness arising from the slaying of a brahmin might be destroyed, / which does not vanish for mortals on earth even through bathing in sacred fords and the like.

Pulastya said: / Having heard the words of the brahmins, that king, filled with faith / and devoted to the pilgrimage to sacred fords, wandered the earth.

Restrained, with restricted food, giving abundant gifts, / having established on the throne his son Vasu of true prowess,

in the course of his pilgrimage to sacred fords after some time, / that king indeed arrived at Arbuda with its clear waters.

He performed a ritual ablution there with a mind purified by faith. / As soon as he had bathed in that very body of water,

His ancestors were released from terrible hell, overjoyed. / Then, seated in a divine aerial chariot and adorned with divine garlands and garments,

they said to him: “O son, we all have now been redeemed by you / by the power of this sacred ford, as well as ten generations to come,

and yourself, O best of kings, through your ritual ablution and water libation. / Because the family was redeemed by you, son, at this sacred ford,

this sacred ford will be known as Kulasaṃtāraṇa. / Therefore, you too, O king of kings, together with us, / come to heaven in this very body by the power of this sacred ford!”

Pulastya said: / Addressed thus, that king of kings, his body then possessing divine radiance, / mounted that aerial chariot and went to heaven along with them.

Such is the power of Kulasaṃtāraṇa, O royal seer, / described fully by me to you. What more do you ask?

Yayāti said: / What power did that king possess, who, though so full of sin, / went to heaven in his own body? This is a great wonder to me.

Pulastya said: / At the very moment of a full moon, Monday, and vyatīpāta, O best of kings, / the king bathed there, which led to the supreme, highest good.

Thus ends the forty-eighth chapter, titled ‘Description of the Māhātmya of the Kulasaṃtāraṇa Sacred Ford,’ in the Arbudakhaṇḍa, the third [part] of the Prabhāsakhaṇḍa, the seventh [book] of the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand [verses].