Skandapurana 5.25

Sūta said: / A wonder took place there in the past, O best of brahmins; / I shall recount that to you, arising from the greatness of the Gaṅgā.

In the city of Camatkārapura, there was formerly a brahmin of strict vows, / known as Caṇḍaśarman, endowed with beauty, generosity, and virtues.

When he was endowed with youth, he developed a passion for a courtesan; / though a Vedic scholar, the brahmin became afflicted by the heavy burden of youth.

Once, getting up at midnight afflicted by thirst, / he begged that courtesan: "I wish to drink water."

Then she, mistaking it for water, took a water-pot containing liquor / and gave the drink to him, who was overcome by sleep.

When the liquor entered his mouth, he, filled with rage, / reproached the courtesan with the repeated words: "Fie! Fie!"

"What is this, what is this, O sinful woman! A vile deed has been done / by you, in that despicable liquor has been poured into my mouth!

My brahminhood is destroyed today through drinking liquor, without doubt; / therefore, I shall perform an expiation for the purification of myself."

Having spoken thus, having gone out from her house filled with sorrow, / he then went to a lonely forest and wept piteously.

Then at daybreak, having bathed, wearing [clean] clothes, / having shaved all the hair of his body, O best of twice-born,

He arrived where the assembly of leading brahmins was seated, / reading all the scriptures and the entirety of the Upaniṣads.

Then, prostrating himself, he said loudly to the best of brahmins: / “Mistaking it for water, I drank wine; punish me!”

Then all those brahmins, deliberating again and again over the Dharmaśāstras, / said to him as he stood ready for penance:

The brahmins said: / “If a brahmin drinks wine, whether unknowingly or knowingly, / he is purified only by drinking that same amount of fire-hot ghee.

So, if you desire purification, drink fire-hot ghee; / for purification, drink only as much wine as you have drunk.”

Agreeing, “So be it,” and taking the ghee at that very moment, / O best of brahmins, just as he made it blazing like fire to drink,

his father, accompanied by his wife, arrived upon hearing the news, / saying, “What is this? What is this, son?”, filled with sorrow, / distressed, his eyes full of tears, his voice choked with weeping.

Then he recounted the entire event that had occurred in the night / and that appropriate penance prescribed by the brahmins.

Then he said to all those brahmins, O best of brahmins: / “Let another penance be prescribed for this son of mine!

Having reflected on the Dharmaśāstras and deliberated again and again, / I will undoubtedly give away even my entire property for the sake of my son.”

Then all those brahmins, having reflected on the Dharmaśāstras / respectfully again and again, said to him, O best of sages:

“There is no other penance for the twice-born in the drinking of wine / except the burning on the muñja-grass pyre, O brahmin; carry out what is prescribed.”

Then he said to his son: “You must not do this at all; / give gifts to the brahmins and undertake a pilgrimage to sacred fords.

Then you will gradually attain purity, observing vows / and having performed various religious observances; this I speak truthfully.”

“The penance prescribed by the brahmins is not for purification.”

The son said: / “Since these noble souls prescribe this, such as vows, / therefore, father, the burning on the muñja-grass pyre must undoubtedly be performed by me.

You ought to forgive all that I have done in childhood.”

Sūta said: / Knowing his resolve, that father, loving towards his son, / gave away all his possessions in grief, resolved upon death.

His devoted wife also, having resolved upon death, / looked at her son after giving away everything, including their house, and said to him:

“Only when the two of us have entered the fire, son, / is the burning on the muñja-grass pyre to be done by you, if you regard me and your father.”

Then, as the married couple cheerfully approached the fire / to die, and the son born of the two of them [did likewise],

just then a sage named Śāṇḍilya, master of the Vedas, / arrived in that region, O best of brahmins, in the course of a pilgrimage to sacred fords.

Having heard the incident, his eyes red with anger, / he spoke to all the brahmins, censuring them repeatedly:

“Ah, you are utter fools, since this trio of brahmins / meets death in vain when an easy expiation exists!

Let all the brahmins hear the word spoken here by the great-souled Kātyāyana, / and likewise he who requires penance:

‘Cāndrāyaṇas, kṛcchras, and sāṃtapanas— / such penances are prescribed only where the Gaṅgā does not exist.’

Here in this sacred field is the Gaṅgā, the Viṣṇupadī, O best of brahmins; / let him bathe in it, and then he will attain purification.

The burning on the muñja-grass pyre would be valid if it were the word of a sage; / and this statement here is indeed clearly that of the sage Kātyāyana.”

Then all those brahmins, filled with great joy, / exclaimed to him, “Excellent! Excellent!”, and said: “This is true, O sage!”

Then, consoling that brahmin, the best of the twice-born led him there / where the Viṣṇupadī Gaṅgā herself was present.

There, as soon as that brahmin took a mouthful / of the water from the Gaṅgā into his mouth, he became purified; / all the water [he had drunk] came out of his belly, O best of brahmins.

Then, as he plunged into its beautiful water, / a deep voice born of the sky spoke:

“This brahmin is purified directly by the contact with the Viṣṇupadī, / merely by bathing and sipping its water; therefore, let him go to his own home.”

Then all those brahmins, Caṇḍaśarman and the others, / saying, “By good fortune! By good fortune!”, went to their own mansions.

Sūta said: / Such is the power of the Gaṅgā Viṣṇupadī, O brahmins, / situated at the western border of that sacred field, destroying sin.

All this has been related to you: the origin of the Viṣṇupadī, / a māhātmya that destroys all evils, O best of brahmins.

Thus ends the twenty-fifth chapter, named ‘Description of the Māhātmya of the Viṣṇupadī Gaṅgā’, in the Māhātmya of the Hāṭakeśvara Sacred Field, in the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, the sixth [section], in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand [verses].