Skanda Purana — Vishnu Khanda, Shloka 90
पौषे मासि विशेषेण यः कुर्यात्स्नानमादृतः । ब्राह्मणः क्षत्रियो वैश्यः शूद्रो वा वर्णसंकरः । स याति ब्रह्मणः स्थानं पुनरावृत्तिवर्जितम्
pauṣe māsi viśeṣeṇa yaḥ kuryātsnānamādṛtaḥ | brāhmaṇaḥ kṣatriyo vaiśyaḥ śūdro vā varṇasaṃkaraḥ | sa yāti brahmaṇaḥ sthānaṃ punarāvṛttivarjitam
مَن اغتسل اغتسالًا شعائريًا بخشوع، ولا سيّما في شهر بوشا (Pauṣa)—سواء كان براهمنًا أو كشاتريا أو فايشيا أو شودرا أو من أصلٍ مختلط—بلغ مقام براهما، منزّهًا عن الرجوع (متجاوزًا للولادة من جديد).
Brahmā (deduced; Vaiṣṇavakhaṇḍa framework)
Tirtha: Sarayū-snāna in Ayodhyā-kṣetra (implied)
Type: ghat
Listener: vipra (brāhmaṇa addressee implied in the surrounding passage)
Scene: Winter dawn at Ayodhyā: devotees of all backgrounds descend the ghāṭa to bathe in the Sarayū, mist rising, priests chanting, lamps and conch-sounds in the distance; the city’s sacred skyline behind.
FAQs
Sincere tīrtha-observance in sacred time is universally efficacious and can culminate in liberation-like fruit.
Ayodhyā’s sacred bathing tradition as taught in the Ayodhyāmāhātmya.
Reverent snāna (ritual bath) in the month of Pauṣa, open to all social categories.