Skandapurana 3.1.30

Śrī Sūta said:

A mortal who has performed ritual ablution in the exceedingly purifying Sarvatīrtha

should then proceed to Dhanuṣkoṭi, which destroys sins such as killing a brahmin. / 1

Merely by remembering it, a human being on earth becomes liberated.

Those who look upon Dhanuṣkoṭi, or bathe [there], or speak of it, / 2

do not experience the twenty-eight varieties of hells:

Tāmisra, Andhatāmisra, Mahāraurava, Raurava, / 3

Kumbhīpāka, Kālasūtra, Asipatravana likewise,

Kṛmibhakṣa, Andhakūpa, Saṃdaṃśa, and Śālmalī; / 4

Sūrmi, Vaitaraṇī, Prāṇarodha, and likewise Viśasana,

Lālābhakṣa, also Avīci, and likewise Sārameyādana,

and also Vajrakaṇaka, Kṣārakardamapātana,

Rakṣogaṇāśana, Śūlaprota, Vitodana,

Daṃdaśūkāśana, and the one named Paryāvartana,

the one named Tirodhāna, O brahmins, and the one called Sūcīmukha,

Pūyaśoṇitabhakṣa, and Viṣāgniparipīḍana.

Into this collection of hells numbering twenty-eight,

a person does not go, O brahmins, by taking a plunge at Dhanuṣkoṭi.

He who plunders the wealth, offspring, and wives of others,

bound by the noose of Time by the terrifying messengers of Yama,

is cast into the dread hell of Tāmisra for many years.

If he bathes at Dhanuṣkoṭi, he is not thrown into it.

He who, having killed a master, enjoys his wealth and the like,

is thrown into Andhatāmisra, which is filled with immense suffering.

If he bathes at Dhanuṣkoṭi, he is not thrown into it.

A mortal who maintains his own family by malice toward living beings,

leaving them here, is quickly and surely cast into Raurava,

which is filled with great snakes violent with poison, by Yama's men.

If he bathes at Dhanuṣkoṭi, he is not thrown into it.

A mortal who feeds only his own body without wife, son, and the like,

is cast into dread Mahāraurava, eating his own flesh.

If he bathes at Dhanuṣkoṭi, he is not thrown into it.

He who traps animals or birds while they are alive,

deprived of any trace of pity, condemned even by carnivorous demons,

Yama's attendants cast him into boiling oil in Kumbhīpāka.

If he bathes at Dhanuṣkoṭi, he is not thrown into it.

The vile man who hates mother, father, or brahmins,

he, in the hell of Kālasūtra, ten thousand yojanas wide,

tormented by fire below and by the sun's rays above,

is cast, afflicted by hunger, on a floor made of copper, O brahmins.

If he bathes at Dhanuṣkoṭi, he is not thrown into it.

The man who transgresses the Vedic path and walks on an evil road,

is cast into the dread Asipatravana by the servants of Yama.

If he bathes at Dhanuṣkoṭi, he is not thrown into it.

A king or a servant of a king who inflicts punishment on the unpunishable,

or corporal punishment on a brahmin, he, O twice-born,

is cast into the dread hell of Śūkaramukha, crushed in a press like sugarcane.

If he bathes at Dhanuṣkoṭi, he is not thrown into it.

He who slaughters living beings whose livelihoods depend on God,

being tormented by those very creatures who were tormented by him,

is cast into the deeply terrifying Andhakūpa by Yama's servants.

There, heavy with darkness, sleepless, he must wander without rest.

[If he bathes] at Dhanuṣkoṭi, he is not cast into it.

A man who eats grain, soup, and the like while making row-distinctions,

or who, out of delusion, eats without having offered the five sacrifices, O twice-born,

is thrown down by Yama's warriors into the hell of Kṛmibhojana,

being eaten by hundreds of worms while eating masses of worms,

and, having himself become a worm, he remains there until the exhaustion of his sin.

If he bathes at Dhanuṣkoṭi, he is not thrown into it.

He who steals the wealth of a brahmin by theft or by force,

or the wealth of others, whether a king or his official,

tormented intensely with tongs in fiery pits made of iron,

is cast into the dread hell of Saṃdaṃśa by Yama's men.

If he bathes at Dhanuṣkoṭi, he is not thrown into it.

A vile man who has intercourse with a forbidden woman,

or a woman who has intercourse with a forbidden man, O twice-born,

both of them, [embracing] an iron woman and an iron man,

standing embracing them red-hot as long as the moon and sun endure,

are cast into the dread hell named Sūrmi, full of many thorns.

If he bathes at Dhanuṣkoṭi, he is not cast into that [hell].

Whoever afflicts all creatures through various means and harassments,

is cast into the terrible hell Śālmalī, which is full of thorns.

If he bathes at Dhanuṣkoṭi, he is not cast into that [hell].

A king or a king's servant who follows heresy,

and breaches the embankments of dharma, is cast into the Vaitaraṇī.

If he bathes at Dhanuṣkoṭi, he is not cast into that [hell].

He who is defiled by association with an outcaste woman, destitute of purification and proper conduct,

who has abandoned shame, abandoned the Veda, and engages in the conduct of beasts—

he, into [a place] filled with pus, feces, urine, blood, phlegm, bile, and the like,

into an exceedingly loathsome hell, is cast by the servants of Yama.

If he bathes at Dhanuṣkoṭi, he is not cast into that [hell].

A hunter who kills with stones or afflicts deer with arrows—

pierced by a flood of arrows by the servants of Yama in the other world,

he is cast by the servants of Yama into the hell named Prāṇarodha.

If he bathes at Dhanuṣkoṭi, he is not cast into that [hell].

A hypocrite who slaughters animals in a sacrifice without following the prescribed rites,

O twice-born ones, in the other worlds, into the hell Vaiśasa,

hacked to pieces by Yama's soldiers, is cast, overwhelmed with pain.

If he bathes at Dhanuṣkoṭi, he is not cast into that [hell].

He who makes his own wife of the same caste swallow semen,

becomes a semen-drinker in the other world and is cast into the semen-pit.

If he bathes at Dhanuṣkoṭi, he is not cast into that [hell].

He who, adopting the ways of a bandit, gives poison or burns down villages,

and robs merchants of their goods, in the other world, O best of the twice-born,

is cast for a long time into the hell named Vajradaṃṣṭrāhika.

If he bathes at Dhanuṣkoṭi, he is not cast into that [hell].

Whatever other hells exist in the other world,

a human being does not attain them by immersing in Dhanuṣkoṭi.

From bathing once in Dhanuṣkoṭi, one obtains the fruit of an horse sacrifice.

Knowledge of the Self arises directly, and also the fourfold liberation.

The intellect does not delight in sin, nor does suffering occur at all.

True delight of the intellect comes about from immersing in Dhanuṣkoṭi.

Whatever fruit is obtained by men through the gift of a man's weight [in gold],

that fruit is obtained by mortals through immersion in Dhanuṣkoṭi.

Whatever merit indeed accrues to men through the gift of a thousand cows,

that merit a mortal obtains through immersion in Dhanuṣkoṭi.

Among dharma, wealth, pleasure, and liberation, whatever a man desires,

that very thing he immediately attains through immersion in Dhanuṣkoṭi.

Whether laden with great mortal sins or laden with all [manner of] sins,

he instantly becomes purified, O brahmins, through immersion in Dhanuṣkoṭi.

Wisdom, fortune, renown, prosperity, knowledge, dharma, detachment,

and purity of mind accrue to men through immersion in Dhanuṣkoṭi.

Even ten thousand slaughters of brahmins and ten thousand drinkings of liquor,

ten thousand violations of the guru's wife—causes of sin—

ten thousand thefts of gold, and association with such by the millions,

swiftly vanish through immersion in Dhanuṣkoṭi.

[Sins] equal to the slaughter of a brahmin, and equal to drinking liquor,

and whatever [sins] are equal to violating the guru's wife, O faithful ones,

equal to theft of gold, and equal to association with them—

all of them perish through immersion in Dhanuṣkoṭi.

No doubt should ever be entertained regarding these [matters] spoken of.

I place a heated axe on the tip of my tongue, there is no doubt:

calling all this mere eulogy, one would indeed become an inhabitant of hell.

For he should be known as a hybrid, barred from all sacred acts.

Ah, what foolishness! Ah, what foolishness! Ah, what foolishness, O best of the twice-born!

Even while the sacred ford named Dhanuṣkoṭi, destroyer of all sins,

giver of non-dual knowledge to men, bestower of worldly enjoyment and liberation,

ever bestowing what is desired and cherished, and likewise destroying ignorance,

exists, people abandon it and take pleasure elsewhere!

Ah, the power of delusion! I cannot express it.

For one who has bathed at the tip of the bow, there is truly no fear of death.65.

Those men who look upon Dhanuṣkoṭi and bathe there,

and praise, extol, touch, and bow down to it,

verily never again drink mothers' breast milk, O foremost of the twice-born! 66.

The seers said:

How did the name 'Dhanuṣkoṭi' come to it, O Sūta? 67.

Tell all of that in detail according to the truth, O foremost of sages.

Thus questioned by the dwellers of Naimiṣa, Sūta spoke again to them: 68.

The venerable Sūta said:

When Rāvaṇa, the thorn of the worlds, was slain in battle by Rāma,

and Vibhīṣaṇa was then established as king in Laṅkā, 69.

Rāma, the son of Daśaratha, together with Vaidehī and Lakṣmaṇa,

and surrounded by heroic monkeys headed by Sugrīva, 3.1.30.70.

his marvelous deeds constantly praised by siddhas, cāraṇas, gandharvas,

gods, vidyādharas, seers, and apsarases, 71.

holding his bow sportively, like Śiva the destroyer of Tripura,

Rāma, surrounded by all, proceeded to Gandhamādana. 72.

To the great-souled Rāghava, the destroyer of Rāvaṇa, who was staying there,

Vibhīṣaṇa, knowing what is righteous, then made a request with joined palms: 73.

"By means of this bridge, O Rāma, all the kings indeed,

swollen with strength, may come and harass my city. 74.

Therefore, break this bridge with the tip of your bow, O best of the Raghus!"

Thus entreated by that descendant of Pulastya, Rāghava, 75.

the joy of the Raghus, broke his own bridge with the tip of his bow.

Therefore, O twice-born, the sacred ford became renowned as Dhanuṣkoṭi. 76.

Whoever sees the line made by the tip of Śrī Rāma's bow

does not see dwelling in a womb, which is full of manifold afflictions. 77.

The line was made at Dhanuṣkoṭi by Rāma in the salt ocean;

from its darśana liberation is attained—I cannot fathom the fruit born of bathing [there]! 78.

Austerity on the banks of the Narmadā destroys great sins;

death on the banks of the Gaṅgā grants the fruit of final beatitude; 79.

a gift at Kurukṣetra, O twice-born, purifies the killing of a brahmin and other [sins].

Austerity, death, and gifting performed by men at Dhanuṣkoṭi 3.1.30.80.

are effective for destroying great sins, for liberation, and for obtaining desired success;

there should be no doubt about this, O foremost of brahmins! 81.

A creature is tormented by major sins and secondary sins only so long

as Rāma's Dhanuṣkoṭi, which bestows liberation, is not beheld. 82.

The knot of the heart is unfastened, all doubts are cut away,

and sinful actions are destroyed for one who beholds Dhanuṣkoṭi. 83.

The line which was drawn by Rāmacandra with the tip of his bow

on the bridge in the southern ocean, for the benefit of Vibhīṣaṇa, 84.

is the very path to Kailāsa, to Vaikuṇṭha and Brahmaloka,

and the path to the heavenly world; no doubt should be entertained here. 85.

Plunging into Dhanuṣkoṭi is equal to the meritorious fruits of sacrifices;

it yields merit superior to all mantras and gives the fruit of all gifts. 86.

What need have men of austerities that cause bodily distress, or of sacrifices?

What need of the Vedas, or of the treatises, for one who beholds Dhanuṣkoṭi? 87.

If a bath is obtained by men at Rāmacandra's Dhanuṣkoṭi,

what purpose is served by the holy waters of the white-and-dark river? 88.

If the darśana of Rāmacandra's Dhanuṣkoṭi is obtained,

why do men futilely pray for liberation through dying at Kāśī? 89.

Without plunging into Dhanuṣkoṭi, without fasting for three days,

and without giving gold and a cow, one becomes destitute; of this there is no doubt. 3.1.30.90.

Whatever fruit a man attains by bathing in Dhanuṣkoṭi,

even after sacrificing with Agniṣṭoma and other rites offering generous priestly fees, 91.

he does not attain that fruit: truly, truly I say.

They know the sacred ford named Dhanuṣkoṭi to be superior to all sacred fords. 92.

There are one hundred million sacred fords on the surface of the earth;

their presence is here at Dhanuṣkoṭi, O best of the twice-born! 93.

The eight Vasus, the Ādityas, the Rudras, and likewise the Maruts,

the Sādhyas along with the Gandharvas, and likewise the Siddhas and Vidyādharas, 94

these and whatever other gods always make their presence

in this tīrtha, Dhanuṣkoṭi. Constantly indeed the Grandfather [Brahmā] 95

dwells [here], as do Śiva, Viṣṇu, Umā, Lakṣmī, and Sarasvatī.

Having performed austerity at Dhanuṣkoṭi, the gods and the seers, 96

O lords of sages, attained vast perfection as its fruit.

If a man bathes there and makes offerings to the ancestors and the gods, 97

freed from all sins, he is exalted in the world of Brahmā.

Whatever man, endowed with devotion, feeds a single brahmin here, 98

enjoys endless happiness in this world and in the next.