Skandapurana 5.92

Sūta said: / “This greatness of Agnitīrtha has been proclaimed to you. / Now let the origin of Brahmakuṇḍa be heard, O twice-born! 1

When Brahmā was installed by the great-souled Mārkaṇḍa, / a pool endowed with pure water was fashioned there at that time. 2

And it was declared: ‘In the month of Kārttika, when the moon is in Kṛttikā, / having properly performed the Bhīṣma vow and bathed here in the auspicious water, 3

whoever then worships the lotus-born god— / even a Śūdra, leaving his body, will go to the womb of a brahmin. 4

Even a brahmin, if he performs a bath in that pool / after properly undertaking the Bhīṣma vow, will go to Brahmā's world.’ 5

As that virtuous sage Mārkaṇḍeya was speaking thus, / all that speech was heard by a certain cowherd. 6

Then, moved by faith, he duly performed / that five-day Bhīṣma observance when the month of Kārttika arrived. 7

Then, on the full moon day in conjunction with Kṛttikā, having worshipped / the lotus-born according to rule, he afterwards worshipped Puruṣottama. 8

Then, by the ripening of time, he met his death, / and was born in the house of a brahmin in this very city, O best of the twice-born, / remembering his past life, endowed with splendor, bringing delight to his father and mother. 9

While he was thus growing up in that excellent city, / the same kind of affection he had for his father and mother 10

he maintained also toward the Śūdra [father] born of his other body; / rich in wealth, that twice-born man continually rendered 11

benefactions and whatever was agreeable to him. / On another day, that Śūdra who had been his father in his previous life / met his death when the end of his lifespan arrived. 12

Then, having grieved greatly for him, he immediately thereafter / performed all the funerary rites with great devotion. 13

Then, seeing that conduct of his, / his father, mother, sons, and others, filled with curiosity, questioned him: 14

‘Why are you always full of excessive affection toward this base cowherd, / who was not even related to you? Tell us! 15

Why do you even perform the funerary rites for him now that he is dead? / Tell us all this, unless it is a secret.’ 16

Hearing their words, he, feeling somewhat ashamed, / said to them: ‘Listen, and I will tell you without a doubt.’ 17

In his other body, I was his beloved son, / skilled in the work of cattle-rearing and dearer to him than life itself.

Then, after some time, words uttered by the great sage Mārkaṇḍeya / were heard concerning the origin of Brahmakuṇḍa:

“On the full moon day of Kārttika, when the moon is in Kṛttikā, a person who observes the Bhīṣmapañcaka / and, filled with perfect faith, bathes here,

having seen God Pitāmaha and worshipped Janārdana, / will become a brahmin in another birth, even if he were a śūdra.”

Therefore, having duly bathed there in that auspicious, / noble pool in the month of Kārttika, I was born as a true twice-born.

In the renowned lineage of the brahmin seer Candrodaya on earth, / remembering my former birth, great and unrestrained affection / has thus always remained in me toward him, even though he was a śūdra.

Therefore, endowed with devotion, knowing [this], on the full moon day of Kārttika / in the conjunction with Kṛttikā, I observe the supreme vow of Bhīṣma’s five days.

Sūta said: / Having heard his words, those and other foremost twice-born / observed Bhīṣma’s five days, filled with perfect faith.

From then on, that pool became renowned on the surface of the earth, / situated in the northern direction and known as Brahmakuṇḍa.

A brahmin who always bathes there / indeed becomes a prince among brahmins in birth after birth.

Thus ends the ninety-second chapter, titled ‘Description of the Māhātmya of Brahmakuṇḍa’, in the Māhātmya of Hāṭakeśvara Kṣetra in the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, the sixth [part] of the eighty-one-thousand-verse collection of the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa.