Skandapurana 6.3.65

Chapter 65

The venerable Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Then, O king of kings, one should go to the excellent Ānandeśvara. / I shall tell of that sacred ford, which causes the destruction of all sins. 65.1

Yudhiṣṭhira said: / And how did the joy of Rudra arise, O best of the twice-born? / Tell me all of that in brief, along with my kinsmen. 65.2

The venerable Mārkaṇḍeya said: / I shall tell, O best of kings, of the excellent Ānandeśvara. / Having slain the Dānavas, the god of gods, Maheśvara, 65.3

worshipped by all deities, Kinnaras, Yakṣas, and serpents, / filled with joy, the bull-riding god danced. 65.4

Assuming a terrifying form, with half of his body formed by Gaurī, / surrounded by Bhūtas, Vetālas, skeletons, and Bhairavas, the formidable one 65.5

danced on the southern bank of the Narmadā, O son of Pāṇḍu. / By all the delighted hosts of the Maruts, the lotus-seated one was established. 65.6

From that time on, that sacred ford is called Ānandeśvara. / On the eighth, the fourteenth, and the full moon day, O lord of men, 65.7

one should worship the god according to rule and smear him with fragrant paste; / one should worship brahmins there according to one's means, O Yudhiṣṭhira. 65.8

The gift of a cow should be made there, and the gift of garments which brings good fortune. / One should perform a śrāddha right there on the thirteenth day of the spring [month].

With inguda fruits, jujubes, bilva fruits, unhusked barley grains, or with water, / one should perform a śrāddha for the departed ancestors at the supreme Ānandeśvara.

They will remain delighted until the dissolution of all beings. / Indeed, no break occurs in one's lineage for seven lifetimes; / for joy shall be theirs in every birth, O descendant of Bharata.

Thus ends the sixty-fifth chapter, named 'Description of the Glory of the Ānandeśvara Sacred Ford', in the Revā Section of the fifth Avanti Section in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.