Skandapurana 6.3.176

Chapter 176

The glorious Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Then one should go, O king, to the excellent Piṅgalāvarta, / a sacred ford endowed with all virtues, fulfilling desires, rare on earth.

Sin committed formerly by speech, mind, or action— / having approached Piṅgaleśvara, all that dissolves away.

A bath and a gift performed there in Devakhāta, O king, / all that becomes imperishable; thus indeed Śaṅkara spoke.

Having gathered auspicious water from all the sacred fords on earth, / it was released there by the gods after digging; hence it became Devakhāta.

Yudhiṣṭhira said: / How did that Devakhāta come to be, O best of the twice-born? / Why did all the gods release water from sacred fords there? / Tell me everything, O brahmin; my mind is eager to hear.

The glorious Mārkaṇḍeya said: / When, for the sake of purifying his trident, Rudra, carrying a water-pot, / wandered over the entire auspicious earth together with the hosts of gods,

the gods then bathed in sacred fords beginning with Prabhāsa. / Water taken from all the sacred fords was placed into a vessel by them.

Having reached Śūlabheda, the trident of the Trident-Bearer was purified. / Taking the water that arose there, they came to Bhṛgukaccha.

Then they saw there the tawny-eyed Agni, afflicted with disease, / engaged in fierce austerity, meditating on Maheśvara.

Seeing Agni, the mouth of the gods, suffering from many diseases / because of the oblation-shares of diseased brahmins and kings, / the gods together spoke to the god Śaṅkara, the benefactor of the world.

The gods said: / Let grace be shown, O Śambhu, to the diseased Piṅgala, / so that Piṅga's body becomes healthy again, capable of receiving oblations; / make it so, O Maheśvara!

Īśvara said:
“O gods, I am well pleased with your austerity,
and especially by your word; I grant the desired boon.”

Piṅgala said:
“If you are pleased, O Lord of gods, and what is desired is granted, O God,
having made the moon and sun your eyes, stay here with a portion [of yourself],

so that my body may indeed become renewed, O Śaṅkara.
Bring that about, O Virūpākṣa; homage to you again and again!”

Mārkaṇḍeya said:
Then that blessed Śambhu, having assumed
a form in the manner of the sun, removed that disease of his, O Śaṅkara.

Having then become renewed, he spoke again to Śaṅkara:
“Let Śambhu remain right here, and likewise the Sun himself,

for the benefit of living beings, for the pacification of diseases,
for the destruction of sins, and for the increase of blessings.”

Addressed thus by the great-souled Piṅgala, the Lord
made a descent and spoke these words to the gods:

Īśvara said:
“O gods, release the water that has been brought together from the sacred fords,
having made to the north of me an auspicious pit filled with deities.

Let that divine water, which destroys all diseases
and removes all sins, be poured there by all the gods and others.”

Addressed thus, all the gods made a pit to the north in that manner,
and the water born of those sacred fords was released by the hosts of thirty-three crores.

All together, led by Virūpākṣa, said:
“Whoever, having first applied clay at this divine pit,

and made a ritual ablution on a Sunday, bathes thoroughly in the water of the Narmadā,
performs a śrāddha for the ancestors, gives gifts according to his capacity,

and worships Piṅgeśa, his dwelling shall be in heaven.
It has been declared by the gods; let the whole world hear it!

The ailments of mortals on earth—consumption and scabies,
horrible diseases arising from cough, asthma, and fever,

fevers that return every one, two, three, or four days, those arising from spirits,
and whatever other disordered humors, ringworm, and jaundice—

they go to destruction within seven days through ritual ablutions on Sundays.
Likewise, the various kinds of leprosy differentiated into a hundred varieties—

he who bathes for one hundred and eight Sundays,
worships Śaṅkara, and gives a vessel of sesame to a twice-born,

his leprosies are destroyed like snakes by Garuḍa.”
Having spoken thus, all the thirty [gods] went to the abode of the thirty.

Mārkaṇḍeya said:
In rivers, divine pits, ponds, and streams
a person should always perform ritual ablution; he is freed from sins.

Whatever fruit there is in sixty thousand sacred fords and six hundred sacred fords
in ritual ablutions and gifts, greater than that is in the divine pit.

The man who, having bathed in the divine pits and offered water to the ancestors, O king,
worships the supreme Piṅgaleśvara, the God of gods,

attains the religious merit of both the horse sacrifice and the Vājapeya sacrifice,
O descendant of Bharata; there is no doubt to be entertained in this matter.

Thus ends the one hundred and seventy-sixth chapter, named “Description of the Māhātmya of the Piṅgaleśvara Sacred Ford,” in the Revākhaṇḍa of the Avantī section in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand [verses].