Skandapurana 5.57

Sūta said: / In that sacred field, O best of brahmins, the sun was likewise established / by Bhīṣma, in agreement with the foremost of brahmins, and through his own will.

Formerly, there was a beloved son of Śaṃtanu, renowned as Gāṅgeya, / the best of men, celebrated as one whose semen flows upward (ūrdhvaretas).

A fierce, great battle occurred between him and the descendant of Bhṛgu (Bhārgava) / for twenty-three days, resembling a war between gods and asuras, / on account of Ambā, with sharp weapons and missiles thereafter.

Then the gods, headed by Brahmā, stood between them on their own / to restrain those two, for the pacification of all embodied beings; / and having raised them up, they went again to heaven.

Ambā, too, having suffered supreme humiliation arising from Gāṅgeya, / entered a blazing fire, her eyes red with fury.

Having reviled the son of the river (Gāṅgeya), her eyes clouded with tears, / standing in the midst of the fire she then spoke to the grandfather of the Kurus:

“Since I, afflicted by desire, was rejected by you, O Bhīṣma, O evil-minded one, / therefore I shall be born again on earth swiftly for your slaying.

And you will surely be tainted with the sin of killing a woman, / if the dharma arising from the smṛti scriptures is authoritative here.”

Then Bhīṣma, the grandfather of the Kurus, seized with remorse, / humbly questioned the best of sages, Mārkaṇḍeya:

“O venerable one, by the daughter of the king of Kāśi it was proclaimed to me: / ‘All the sin causing your death will fall upon you.’

Could that be so by mere words, or not, O best of brahmins? / In this matter I have a doubt; you ought to tell me the truth properly.”

The venerable Mārkaṇḍeya said: / “Against whomever reviled or struck, a woman or a brahmin gives up life / on his account, that sin indeed belongs to him.

Therefore one should never enrage a woman or a brahmin, / whether striking or cursing, if one desires welfare for oneself.

Moreover, by you that wretched woman, afflicted by desire, was neglected, / having won her formerly at a bridegroom-choice (svayaṃvara); how then could you not partake of the sin?”

Bhīṣma said: / “For that reason, tell me, O brahmin, the expiation for purification— / whether austerity, or a gift, a vow, or a religious observance.”

Mārkaṇḍeya said: / “The guilt that is stated for the slaying of ten eminent brahmins, / all that sin arises in the slaying of a woman, O bull of the Bharatas.

In this matter there is no gift, no austerity, no vow and the like [that avails], / apart from serving sacred fords; therefore perform that.”

Sūta said: / Hearing his words, Bhīṣma, the grandfather of the Kurus, / devoted to pilgrimage to sacred fords, wandered across the circle of the earth.

Then, wandering over the surface of the earth, he came in due course / to the sacred field of Camatkārapura, crowded with various sacred fords.

Then that great soul saw the very holy Gayāśiras there; / having bathed, just as he was endowed with faith, in accordance with the rules for an ancestral rite (śrāddha),

performed it, a voice from the sky spoke this sentence: / ‘O Bhīṣma, Bhīṣma of mighty arms, you are not fit to perform the rite

born of śrāddha, tainted as you are with the killing of a woman; therefore hear my words. / There is the renowned sacred ford named Śarmiṣṭhātīrtha, destroyer of sins,

near to this place, in the western direction, producing merit. / The man who performs a ritual ablution on the sixth day of the dark fortnight falling on a Tuesday (kṛṣṇāṅgārakaṣaṣṭhī),

is freed from the sin committed through killing a woman; there is no doubt in this. / Therefore, on this day, my son, endowed with Tuesday,

that very auspicious sixth lunar day is here; therefore go there quickly. / I am your father, O son, Śaṃtanu, the ruler of the earth.

Knowing you to be tainted with the killing of a woman, I have come here swiftly.’ / Thereupon Bhīṣma went quickly, composed in mind at that place,

and having performed his ritual ablution, he then performed the śrāddha endowed with faith. / Then, having arrived again, that Śaṃtanu spoke to him:

"O best of Kurus, you have become free from sin, there is no doubt. / Therefore, go to your own home and attend to the affairs of the kingdom."

Then, filled with wonder and knowing it to be an unsurpassed sacred ford, that best of the Kurus [installed] an image of Vāsudeva, and another,

an image of the Sun made of pārijāta wood, endowed with the [prescribed] characteristics, / with good proportions and beautiful form, with a mind purified by faith.

Likewise, endowed with devotion, according to the rites prescribed by rule, / he installed another liṅga of the trident-bearing God, and [an image of] Durgā.

Then, having summoned all the brahmins born in that town, / the Kaurava Bhīṣma stood bowed with humility and spoke:

"O brahmins, four temples of the gods have been constructed by me / in this sacred field. Showing compassion toward me,

protect them. I shall depart swiftly to my own home, / impelled by my divine ancestors who abide on the path to heaven."

The brahmins said: / "Go, go, O best of Kurus, fully confident by your own power! / We all shall bring about the increase of your prosperity.

O king, this series of deities that has been established here by you— / we will always perform all their worship and rites.

Seeing your humility as well, O king, we are exceedingly pleased. / Therefore, ask of all of us a boon that resides in your heart."

Bhīṣma said: / "This alone is my boon, that the best of brahmins are pleased. / Nevertheless, your word must now be carried out quickly by me:

Whatever desire a human being on earth may contemplate, and full of faith / worship in these temples of mine—by your grace alone, / that desire will surely be his, without doubt."

The brahmins said: / "In the month of Bhādrapada we shall perform the pilgrimage-festival of the Sun / on the seventh day falling on a Sunday, remaining always attentive;

and of Śiva on the eighth day, especially during the bright fortnight of Caitra; / [and] on the fourteenth day, O fortunate one, out of love for you, without a doubt;

when the twelfth day arrives for Viṣṇu's sleeping and waking; / and when the ninth day arrives for both Viṣṇu and Durgā

in the bright fortnight of Āśvina, with the sounds of singing and musical instruments, / and a great festival with diverse and wonderful comic acting and graceful dances. / Whatever human being, always endowed with supreme faith, / performs singing and the like there, shall attain the highest state.

We shall always be pleased in our minds toward him, / and we shall grant the desires wished for in his heart, O king."

Having spoken thus, those brahmins returned to their own abodes; / and Bhīṣma, filled with joy, departed thence to his own home.

Thus ends the fifty-seventh chapter, named 'The Narration of the Pilgrimage of Gāṅgeya', in the Māhātmya of the Sacred Field of Śrī Hāṭakeśvara, in the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, the sixth [part] of the eighty-one-thousand-verse collection in the glorious Skanda Purāṇa.