Skandapurana 2.4.4.4.2

2.4.4.4.2

'Since the water was defiled by me with accumulations of bodily impurities, (15ab) / for the sake of removing that fault I make an offering to consumption.' / Having wrung out the cloth, one should apply the tilaka mark and the rest. (16) / Sūta said: / Listen, all you seers, to the fruit arising from the Kārtika ritual ablution, / which was spoken in detail by Sūrya to Aruṇa. (17) / Aruṇa said: / At which sacred ford or in which sacred field is the fruit arising in Kārtika / particularly [great] through conjunction with ritual ablution? Tell this, O Lord. (18) / Sūrya said: / Wherever it may be, the ritual ablution of Kārtika should be performed in water; / anywhere in Kārtika, a bath should be taken with hot water [if needed]; (19) / from that, the merit is tenfold through immersion in cold water; / a hundredfold greater than that is the merit obtained in the water of an outdoor well; (20) / the fruit is a thousandfold that of a well from pouring water from a step-well; / tenfold greater than that is the merit that arises from bathing in a pool; (21) / from that, the merit is tenfold through immersion in mountain streams; / far greater than that is the merit of river bathing in Kārtika; (22) / bathing at a sacred ford is said to be tenfold that of a river, O best of birds; / tenfold greater than that is the merit where there is a confluence of two rivers; (23) / at the confluence of three rivers there is no end to the merit. / The Sindhu, Kṛṣṇā, Veṇī, Yamunā, and Sarasvatī, (24) / Godāvarī, Vipāśā, Narmadā, Tamasā, Mahī, / Kāverī, Śarayū, Śiprā, and also the Carmaṇvatī river, (25) / Vitastā, Vedikā, Śoṇa, Vetravatī, Aparājitā, / Gaṇḍakī, Gomatī, Pūrṇā, Brahmaputrā, Sarovara, (26) / Vāgmatī, and Śatadru, and likewise Badarikāśrama— / these sacred fords are difficult to attain in Kārtika; now learn of them from me. (27) / Above all places, Āryāvarta is indeed the giver of merit; / Kolhāpurī is superior to that; after that, the two Kāñcīs are remembered, (28) / the abode of Anantasena, and also the Varāhakṣetra. (29ab)