Skandapurana 14.18

English (machine translation) 14.18

Language: English

14.18.1

Pulastya said: / Then, O best of kings, one should go to the unsurpassed Yamatīrtha, / which releases living beings from hells and destroys sin.

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Formerly, there was a king named Citrāṅgada who was exceedingly greedy; / not the least good deed was done by him, O best of rulers.

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Exceedingly cruel and wicked, he tormented gods and brahmins; / he was constantly an abductor of others' wives as well as an embezzler of others' wealth.

14.18.4

Devoid of truthfulness and purity, he was full of deceit and malice; / once, addicted to hunting, he ascended Mount Arbuda.

14.18.58

Exhausted from wandering, agitated with hunger and thirst, / he found a lake there filled with clear water,

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covered with lotuses, teeming with alligators, crocodiles, and fish, / filled with various birds, delightful, and very expansive.

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Afflicted by thirst, he entered into that very body of water; / seized in an instant by an alligator, he was devoured, O best of kings.

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Fierce hells had been prepared for him by Yama; / then, that greatest committer of sins was taken and thrown in by Yama's messengers.

By his touch, all those residing in hell attained happiness. / Filled with wonder, those messengers reported to Dharmarāja the event that had occurred in hell, / the arising of happiness for the hell-dwellers.

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Then Vaivasvata said: 'On earth is Mount Arbuda; / there is my dearest sacred ford, where austerity was performed by me.

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It appears that he met his death there; this indeed must be the reason.' / By them it was said: 'This is true; he died on Mount Arbuda. / Seized there by an alligator, that vilest of kings met his death.'

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Yama said: / 'Quickly let him be released on account of that! And other people must not be brought [here] / who die at my sacred ford, which destroys all sins.'

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Then, released by those attendants by Yama's command, O best of kings, / he joyfully reached heaven, attended by hosts of apsarases.

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And whoever, endowed with devotion, performs ritual ablution there, / goes to the supreme abode, free from old age and death.

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Therefore, with every effort one should perform ritual ablution there / on the thirteenth day of the bright half of Caitra, where Yama attained perfection.

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On that very day a person should properly perform the ancestral rites; / his ancestors remain in heaven until the end of an eon, O king.

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Thus ends the eighteenth chapter, titled 'The Description of the Māhātmya of Yamatīrtha,' in the Arbuda Section of the third Prabhāsakhaṇḍa, in the seventh part of the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand verses.

Linked texts (1)

Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit