Skandapurana 6.3.175

Chapter 175

The glorious Mārkaṇḍeya said: / On the northern bank of the Narmadā, in the middle of Bhṛgukṣetra, / Kapileśvara is famous, especially for destroying sins.

That eternal god who is proclaimed in the Purāṇa, / Vāsudeva, Lord of the Universe, assumed the form of Kapila.

The netherworld named Sutala, and beneath it indeed Nitala, / and beneath that Gabhastimat, and indeed Andhatāmisra,

and the seventh Pātāla which is situated far below— / the ancient god, the supreme lord, dwells there indeed.

He is Brahmā, he is Mahādeva, he is the god whose emblem is Garuḍa. / Being worshiped by gods, siddhas, and exponents of the Veda, he abides [there].

While he, Kapila, the teacher of the universe, was dwelling [there], O king of kings, / the sons of Sagara met destruction before him in an instant.

Seeing them turned to ashes, Kapila, the best of sages, / felt supreme grief, pondering upon the sin:

“When all attachment has been abandoned and the mind is freed from sensory objects, / it was unfitting for me to bring about the destruction of sixty thousand [men].

What is done cannot be undone; therefore, for the destruction of the sin, / having gone to the Kāpila sacred ford, I shall free myself from sin.”

Then, having left Pātāla, Kapila, the best of sages, / performed very great austerity, staying on the bank of the Narmadā.

Through various vows and fasts, ritual ablutions, gifts, and recitations, / he attained supreme liberation, worshiping the imperishable Rudra.

Whoever, having bathed at that sacred ford, worships the supreme lord, / attains the fruit of a thousand cows; there is no doubt in this.

When the fourteenth day of the bright fortnight in the month of Jyeṣṭha arrives, / having bathed there according to rule, one gives a gift with devotion.

To a deserving brahmin, whether small or great, / that fruit has been declared imperishable by Śiva, the supreme lord.

When a Tuesday coincides with the fourth or ninth [tithi], / if a man performs a bath, [or] if an excellent woman fasts with devotion,

beauty, peerless sovereignty, good fortune, and supreme progeny / they obtain for seven births, continually, again and again.

Having bathed on a full moon or new moon day, whoever offers a rice-ball— / his [ancestors], satisfied, go to the abode of the gods for twelve years.

Whoever with devotion offers a very radiant lamp at that sacred ford, / for him, O king of kings, a great bodily splendor is born.

For living beings who die at that sacred ford at any time, / their departure from the abode of Śiva never turns back.

Thus ends the one hundred and seventy-fifth chapter, entitled “Description of the Māhātmya of the Kapileśvara Sacred Ford,” in the Revākhaṇḍa of the fifth section, the Āvantyakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skandapurāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand [verses].