Skandapurana 5.19

Sūta said: / In the meantime, the servants of that king arrived, / some of whom, by turn of fate, had been half-eaten by beasts of prey,

tormented by hunger and thirst, wretched, and afflicted with great sorrow, / [following] along the path of footprints by which the king had gone.

Seeing the king there, respectfully crying, "By good fortune! By good fortune!" / they fell at his feet, filled with joy.

Then they recounted to that ruler of men the calamity that befell the army, / just as it was seen, experienced, and heard.

Then all those ascetics and that king along with his servants / fell asleep beneath the tree, having spread leaves on the ground.

Then, as all of them slept there in the forest, / that night passed very pleasantly for those noble souls.

Then, having risen in the morning and performed his morning rituals, / he bowed deeply to that sage and repeatedly took his leave.

Along with those attendants of his, he set out towards his own city, / aiming for Māhiṣmatī, watching [the path] step by step along the way.

Then, having reached his own home and having rested for some time, / the king afterwards went swiftly to the holy Gayāśiras.

Having arrived there in due time, having bathed, wearing washed garments, and purified, / he offered a śrāddha for the meat-eater with a heart purified by faith.

Then that king saw him at the end of a dream, / wearing heavenly garlands and garments, anointed with heavenly fragrant cosmetics, / mounted upon an excellent aerial chariot, and being praised by kinnaras.

The meat-eater said: / 'By your favor, O king, I am released from the state of a ghost. / May it be well with you; I shall now go to the abode of the thirty gods.'

Then, having arisen in the morning, the king, filled with joy, / performed the śrāddha as prescribed, dedicating it to Vidaivata.

He too came into his sight in that very same form / at the end of the king's dream, spoke likewise, and went to heaven.

Then, in the morning on the third day, the king performed a śrāddha / for the ungrateful one as before, with a heart purified by faith.

Then he also came into that king's dream / in the very same form of a ghost, overwhelmed with great sorrow.

The ungrateful one said: / 'No higher state has come to me, an evildoer, O great king, / a thief of money meant for a reservoir, and likewise ungrateful.

Therefore, O best of kings, so that liberation may arise for me, / do thus today, and be intent on truthful speech.

Truth alone is the supreme Brahman; truth alone is the supreme austerity; / truth alone is the supreme knowledge; truth alone is the supreme sacred learning.

By truth the wind blows; by truth the sun burns; / by the word of truth the ocean does not transgress its shore.

Visiting sacred fords, austerity, giving gifts, personal study of the Veda, serving a guru— / because of this, everything becomes useless for one who lacks truth.

Formerly, all religious duties were placed on one side and truth on the other / upon a scale by the gods out of curiosity; there truth proved heavier.

Therefore, placing truth foremost, deliver me, O noble-minded one! / This will be the highest benefit for you, surpassing even austerity.'

Vidūratha said: / 'Tell me quickly, O ghost, how does your liberation come about, / so that I may perform that act, even if it should be very difficult to do?'

The ghost said: / 'In Camatkārapura, O king, in the holy sacred field of Hāṭakeśvara, / lies Gayāśiras, covered with dust out of fear of the Kali [age],

beneath a plakṣa tree, surrounded on all sides by places of darbha grass, / by abundant kālaśāka greens, and by sesame seeds grown in the forest.

Having gone there, quickly offer a śrāddha with those sesame seeds, / with those greens, and with those kuśa blades, so that my liberation may occur.'

Having heard those words of that wretched one, filled with compassion, / he went there where that tree called plakṣa stood.

Having seen the greens, the sesame seeds, and the darbha grass as described by him, / he dug a small well in that spot for water.

Then, having fetched excellent brahmins who had mastered the Vedas and Vedāṅgas, / he performed the śrāddha as prescribed for the sake of the ungrateful one. / As soon as the śrāddha was performed, a man possessing a divine form, / mounted upon an excellent aerial chariot, then spoke to Vidūratha:

'I am released from the dreadful condition of a ghost through your favor, O lord. / May it be well with you; I shall now go to the abode of the gods.'

Sūta said: / From then on, that small well there became famous / as Gayāśīrṣasamudbhavā, constantly granting nourishment to the ancestors.

Whosoever should perform a śrāddha at it on the new moon of the fortnight of the departed spirits, / O best of brahmins, with kālaśāka and with sesame seeds produced in the forest,

and with trimmed darbha grass, properly endowed with faith, / he obtains the complete fruit from the sacred ford of the ungrateful ghost.

The classes of ancestors—the Agniṣvāttas and the Barhiṣads, / as well as the Ājyapas and the Somapas—are always present there.

Therefore, one should perform a śrāddha there with every effort, / whether at the prescribed time or outside the prescribed time, always for the satisfaction of the ancestors.

Thus, in the holy Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, in the collection of eighty-one thousand [verses], in the sixth Nāgarakhaṇḍa, in the glorification of the sacred field of Hāṭakeśvara, the nineteenth chapter, entitled 'The Description of the māhātmya of the Sacred Ford of Pitṛkūpikā in the Bestowal of Liberation upon the Three Ghosts, Beginning with the Meat-eater, by Means of the Śrāddha Performed by Vidūratha.'