Skandapurana 5.23

Sūta said: / In the western part of that very [place] there is the unsurpassed Mṛgatīrtha, / renowned on the entire surface of the earth as most sacred. / Those men who, endowed with perfect faith, / perform ritual ablution in that sacred ford on the bright fourteenth of Caitra when the sun

stands at midday, never go to an animal womb, / even if they are fraught with sin and endowed with all faults.

Ungrateful people, atheists, thieves, and breakers of boundaries— / having bathed there in that true sacred ford, they attain the supreme state, / mounted on excellent aerial chariots and praised by kiṃnaras.

The seers said: / How did Mṛgatīrtha arise there, O son of Sūta? / Tell us of its power, for our curiosity is great!

Sūta said: / Formerly, in that great forest filled with herds of various deer, / resounding with various birds, and crowded with various trees,

very terrible hunters arrived, bows in hand; / dark-bodied, wandering about, they were like other messengers of Yama.

Meanwhile, beneath a tree, a herd of deer seated / in full confidence was seen by them then, O best of brahmins.

Then, seeing those hunters even from afar, overcome with fear, / all the deer, intent on flight, swiftly went away from there.

Then, seeing nearby a deep reservoir of water, / all the deer entered it, afflicted with fear and tormented by arrows.

Then, inside that water, every one of those deer / attained human state by its power, O best of brahmins.

Then the hunters questioned those deer that had become humans: / “A herd of deer arrived along this path just now. / By which path did it escape? Tell us from that, without delay!”

The humans said: / “We were all those deer; human state, so very hard to attain, / we have gained by the power of this sacred ford—truly, there is no doubt!”

Hearing that, overcome with amazement, those hunters immediately / discarded their bows and arrows and performed ritual ablution there.

From the mere act of bathing, all of them became best among kings, / having divine garlands and ointments, and possessing divine bodies.

The seers said: / This is a great wonder, O Sūta, that you have related: / by the mere act of bathing, those hunters obtained such a form,

and the deer attained humanity by plunging into the water. / How then did that sacred ford come to be upon the surface of the earth?

Sūta said: / The water that arose from the cleavage of the liṅga, of which I told you before, / was completely covered with dust by the wind at Śakra’s command.

Reaching the cavity of an anthill, it emerged again, O brahmins, / after a long time, in just a small amount in that region,

where King Triśaṅku, having bathed long ago, immediately / obtained a divine form again, after having remained in the state of a caṇḍāla.

For this reason, the deer and the hunters who bathed there / were all freed from sin and attained a supreme form.

Thus ends the twenty-third chapter, titled ‘Description of the Māhātmya of the Mṛgatīrtha,’ in the Māhātmya of the Hāṭakeśvara Sacred Field, in the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, the sixth [part] of the auspicious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.