Skandapurana 16.257

Īśvara said: / Then one should proceed, O great goddess, to what is known as Tritakūpa, / three yojanas to the east of Nandāditya.

Formerly in the country of Saurāṣṭra there was an intelligent lord of kings / known as Ātreya, who had mastered the Vedas and Vedāṅgas.

To him, approaching his wife at the fertile season, three sons were born, / Ekata, Dvita, and Trita, O lovely lady.

Trita was the youngest among them, a master of the Vedas and Vedāṅgas, / endowed with all virtues; the two eldest were foolish.

Then, after some time, Ātreya, best of the twice-born, / having performed extensive austerity, succumbed to the law of time.

Then Trita, the king among them, became superior in virtue; / as his son, he took up the burden that [the father] had carried earlier.

The thought arose in his mind: 'How shall I perform a sacrifice, / having invited the foremost brahmins established in sacrificial rites,

and having invoked all the gods, Indra and the others, according to the rule?' / For the sacrificial fees of the foremost brahmins, he went to Prabhāsa; / taking his two elder brothers, the twice-born set forth to obtain cows.

To whichever house Trita, the master of the Vedas, went, / there he received excellent honor and abundant cows.

Having thus obtained wealth in cows, accompanied by his two brothers, / he set out for home, O goddess, having attained supreme contentment.

Trita walked ahead of the two, and the two brothers behind, / driving the cattle, arrived at the sacred field of Prabhāsa.

Then, seeing that abundance of cattle brought for the sake of donation, / a sinful thought arose in the two brothers regarding Trita:

Those two brothers, evil-minded, said to each other: / 'Trita is skilled in sacrifices and skilled in the Vedas;

he is respected and honored everywhere, while we two are foolish and useless. / Indeed, Trita will give away all this cattle at the holy sacrifice;

what has come down from our ancestors should be shared equally. / Therefore, the murder of this Trita, the sacrificer, is truly appropriate right here.'

Having made this resolve, both brothers set forth; / but Trita walked ahead, free from doubt, straightforward, and intelligent.

Next, a tiger of most ferocious appearance arose there; / with gaping jaws, O goddess, it then uttered a terrifying roar.

At its sound, those cows scattered and fled in the ten directions. / In that place there was a large, dreadful, blind well.

On one side was the dreadful tiger, elsewhere the exceedingly terrible well; / seeing them, all the brothers fled, agitated with fear.

Then, reaching the uneven edge of the well, O lovely lady, / they stood until the tiger was gone, and then set their minds on departing.

Then Trita, O goddess, best of kings, was thrown by the two brothers / into the dreadful, dilapidated, waterless well.

Then, taking that wealth in cows, they departed with delighted minds; / but Trita had fallen there into the well devoid of water.

The wise one thought: 'I do not grieve for my life. / The foremost brahmins, masters of the Vedas, were invited by me for the sacrifice, / along with all the gods, Indra and the others; lest my sacrifice be undone, [I must act].'

Thus the master of the Vedas and Vedāṅgas reflected, / and beginning a mental sacrifice right there, O woman of excellent complexion,

the best of the twice-born recited hymns himself again and again / and offered oblations of sand; and by that the deities were pleased.

Knowing his faith, the deities were exceedingly satisfied; / arriving, they addressed the brahmin standing inside the well.

The gods said: / 'O brahmin, truly we all have been thoroughly gratified by you / through this mental sacrifice; therefore, speak what is in your heart!'

The brahmin said: / 'If the gods are pleased with me, may I emerge from the well; / having gone to my own home, I shall perform the sacrifice to the gods.'

Īśvara said: / Then, commanded by the gods, Sarasvatī / burst through the earth into that well and filled it with water.

Then that brahmin emerged and went toward his own house. / From then on, O ruler of the gods, that [well] is called Tritakūpa.

Having bathed there and become pure, one should gratify the ancestors; / rid of all sins, he obtains [the fruit of] a horse sacrifice.

A gift of sesamum seeds along with gold is commended there, O ruler of the gods; / this sacred ford is always dear to the ancestors, O lovely lady.

Those celebrated as Agniṣvāttas and Barhiṣads, / who are divine ancestors, O goddess—their presence is indeed here.

Merely from the darśana of that sacred ford, O best among the gods, / living beings are freed from sin accumulated from birth until death.

Therefore, with every effort one should perform ritual ablution there,
having reached Prabhāsa kṣetra, if one desires one's own welfare.

Thus ends the two hundred fifty-seventh chapter, named 'Description of the Māhātmya of Tritakūpa', in the first [part], the Prabhāsakṣetramāhātmya, in the seventh [book], the Prabhāsakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand [verses].