Skandapurana 2.4.4.4.6

2.4.4.4.6

For women there is no other duty whatsoever apart from their husband. / She who follows the husband's command, even if she should commit a thousand sins, / is righteous in the world; she would not become so through vows and the like. / Even if the husband is poor, fallen, foolish, or wretched, / such a one is the refuge of women; from abandoning him, she would go to hell. / In the Kali [age], child, people show laxity in the rite of bathing. / Even so, I shall describe the bathing in Kārtika and Māgha. / He whose hands and feet, voice and mind are well controlled, / and who possesses learning, austerity, and renown, enjoys the fruit of sacred fords. / The faithless person, the sinful soul, the atheist, one of vacillating mind, / and the sophist—these five do not share in the fruit of sacred fords. / A brahmin who, having risen in the morning, always bathes in sacred fords / is freed from all sins and attains the supreme Brahman. / Bathing is declared to be fourfold by the wise who know bathing: / it is remembered as Vāyavya (airy), Vāruṇa (watery), Divya (celestial), and Brāhma (spiritual). / Vāyavya is bathing in the dust of cows; Vāruṇa is [bathing] in the ocean and the like; / Brāhma is enjoined by brahmin mantras; Divya is the water of the clouds in sunshine. / And among all bathings, the Vāruṇa bath there is superior. / A brahmin, a kṣatriya, and a vaiśya should perform the bath with mantras. / For a śūdra, however, it is remembered as done silently, and likewise for women. / A girl, a young woman, an old woman, men, women, and eunuchs— / are freed from all sins through the bath in Kārtika and Māgha. / Having bathed in Kārtika, people surely attain the desired fruit. / Formerly, at the auspicious Puṣkara, at the confluence of the Nandā, / Prabhañjana was freed at that very moment from his birth as a tiger. / Through the word of Nandā herself, she went to the highest [abode] in Kārtika. / Thus the rule for bathing has been declared. What more do you wish to hear?