Skandapurana 16.40

Īśvara said: / Next, O great goddess, one should go to the [liṅga] installed by Śvetaketu, / a liṅga of great power which was formerly worshipped by Bhīma. 1

It is situated in the presence of Kedāreśvara, not very far away. / One should worship it according to the rule, beginning with a bath of milk and so forth, in due order, / desiring the fruit of the pilgrimage for the sake of the fruit of heaven after death. 2

The Goddess said: / O Lord, as for the liṅga of Śvetaketu which was mentioned by you to me, / how, O Lord, did its name become "Bhīmeśvara"? 3

How was it fashioned in the past, and what is the fruit when it is seen? 4

Īśvara said: / Formerly, in the Tretāyuga during the Svāyambhuva manvantara, / there was a royal sage of very great austerity, famous as Śvetaketu. 5

Having arrived at Prabhāsa and installed Maheśvara, / he performed extensive austerity on the auspicious shore of the ocean. 6

Practicing the five fires in summer, standing exposed to the sky during the rains, / and staying in the middle of water in winter, for nine and five [fourteen] years. 7

Then in the fourteenth [year], O goddess, being pleased by his austerity and observance, / he was addressed by me: "O one of good vows, choose a boon!" 8

Śvetaketu then said: "Grant me unswerving devotion; / O Lord, may you abide in this place if you are pleased with me, O Master!" 9

"So be it," I said, and then vanished from his sight. / Then, after a period of time had elapsed, the highly lustrous Śvetaketu, 10

having fully worshipped this liṅga, attained an exalted state. / Thence its famous name became Śvetaketvīśvara, 11

at the exceedingly meritorious Agnitīrtha, which destroys all sins. / Afterwards, when the Kaliyuga arrived, accompanied by his brothers, 12

when he came to Prabhāsa on the occasion of a pilgrimage to sacred fords, / the mighty-armed Bhīmasena, son of the Wind-god and born of my portion, 13

worshipped that liṅga, making it his own Jāgeśvara, / recognizing the sacred ford near the ocean as exceedingly meritorious. 14

From that time forward, its auspicious name became "Bhīmeśa" once again. / By merely seeing that liṅga even once, O fair lady, 15

the numerous sins committed even in other births / all go to destruction, as do those pertaining to the next world. 16

Thus ends the fortieth chapter, entitled "Description of the Māhātmya of Bhīmeśvara," in the first Prabhāsa-kṣetra-māhātmya of the seventh Prabhāsakhaṇḍa, in the Skandapurāṇa comprising eighty-one thousand verses. 40