Skanda Purana 16.297

The goddess said: / O god of gods, lord of the world, savior from the ocean of worldly existence, / tell me in full detail of the great glory of the Ṛṣitoyā! (1)

How did that name, Ṛṣitoyā, become famous upon the earth? / How did she come again to the auspicious Devadāruvana?

Īśvara said: / Listen, O goddess, attentive to my words; I shall declare / the māhātmya of the Ṛṣitoyā, which destroys all sins.

In the sacred Devadāruvana, seers endowed with austerity / dwell by hundreds and thousands, O fair-hipped lady.

As they dwelled there, a long time passed, my beloved. / Having multiplied with sons and grandsons, they remained, occupying the deodar forest.

Gathering together, they all thought among themselves: / 'The greatly holy Sarasvatī, having taken the submarine fire upon her head,

will only go to the sacred field of Prabhāsa after a long time. / Apart from a river going to the ocean, stepwells, wells, ponds, and the like

do not bring delight to the mind in ritual ablutions, gifts, and recitations. / Having gone to the abode of Brahmā, we shall make a request to Brahmā.'

Īśvara said: / Having thus conferred, all those seers radiant with austerity / went to the world of Brahmā to see the god, the Grandfather. / They praised the lotus-born Brahmā with various hymns of praise.

The seers said: / 'Homage to the one whose form is the praṇava, homage, homage to the creator of the universe! / Likewise, to the protector of the universe, homage be to the Supreme Self!

Likewise, homage to the destroyer of that very [universe], whose nature is Brahman! / O Grandfather, homage to you; O eldest among the gods, homage be to you!

O four-faced one, homage to you; O lotus-born one, homage be to you! / Homage to Virañci, to the Ordainer, homage to the Dispenser!

O consciousness-bliss, homage to you; O Hiraṇyagarbha, homage to you! / O one whose vehicle is a swan, constantly homage be to you, O lotus-seated one!'

As those seers of vital breath drawn upward were thus praising him, / Brahmā, the Grandfather of the world, exceedingly pleased, said:

'Welcome indeed, O best of brahmins! I have received you. / Through this divine hymn of praise, choose an excellent boon.'

The seers said: / 'For our ablution, O god, a river that destroys sin / is sought, O best among the gods; grant us an excellent boon.'

Īśvara said: / Thus addressed at that time by those sages radiant with austerity, / Brahmā then looked at all the rivers embodied in form:

the Gaṅgā and the Yamunā, and also the goddess Sarasvatī, / the Candrabhāgā and the Revā, the Śarayū and the Gaṇḍakī,

the Tāpī, O fair-hipped lady, and also the river Godāvarī, / the Kāverī, the daughter of the Moon, the Śiprā, and the Carmaṇvatī,

the Sindhu, the Vedikā, and all the streams, O fair-faced lady. / They all stood personified, pure, destroying sin.

Seeing all of them about to go toward the earth, / to the charming Devadāruvana in the excellent sacred field of Prabhāsa, / the Grandfather cast his gaze upon his water-pot, and they entered the water-pot.

Brahmā said: / 'All the greatly holy rivers have been held in the water-pot of Brahmā. / Having entered, let them go to the earth out of compassion for the seers.

If I send only one, the others will be angry with me, O brahmins. / Therefore, I shall release all of them, which have made the water-pot their abode.'

Īśvara said: / Then Brahmā released the great rivers stationed there. / Having released them, Brahmā addressed all the sages again and again:

'Because the rivers, embodied as water with great swiftness, / were released by me at the entreaty of the seers for ablution with all haste,

she shall be [known] on the earth by the name Ṛṣitoyā, / the goddess beloved of seers, the destroyer of all sins.'

Īśvara said: / In this way, O goddess, the river came to the Devadāruvana, / renowned as Ṛṣitoyā and holy, O fair-faced lady.

With the sounds of trumpets and kettledrums, and with the auspicious chants of the Vedas, / the goddess was conducted to the ocean by the seers who had mastered the Vedas.

The goddess is easily accessible everywhere, but difficult to attain in three places: / at Mahodaya, in the great sacred ford, in the presence of Mūlacaṇḍīśa,

and where she flows east, uniting with the ocean. / Where the Ṛṣitoyā is reached, what else is sought there?

Those men are always blessed who drink her water, / [and in the place] where bones dissolve within six months.

In the morning the Gaṅgā flows [in her], and in the evening likewise the Yamunā.

At midday, [she is] the Sarasvatī joined with a thousand rivers; / in the afternoon the Revā flows, and at twilight the daughter of the Sun.

Knowing thus, whatever wise person performs ritual ablution there / and conducts a śrāddha according to the rule, he shall partake of her fruit.

Thus the greatness of Ṛṣitoyā has been declared in brief, / removing all sins of men and granting the fruit of all desires.

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