Skanda Purana — Avanti Khanda, Shloka 6
जटामध्यस्थितां गङ्गां मोचयस्वेति भूतले । भास्वन्ती सा ततो मुक्ता रुद्रेण शिरसा भुवि
jaṭāmadhyasthitāṃ gaṅgāṃ mocayasveti bhūtale | bhāsvantī sā tato muktā rudreṇa śirasā bhuvi
„Lass Gaṅgā, die mitten in deinen verfilzten Locken gehalten wird, auf die Erde frei!“—so baten sie. Da wurde die strahlende Göttin von Rudra von seinem Haupt herab in die Welt entlassen.
Īśvara (Śiva)
Tirtha: Gaṅgā (released from Śiva’s jaṭā)
Type: river
Listener: King
Scene: The gods beseech Rudra to release Gaṅgā from within his matted locks; the radiant river-goddess emerges from Śiva’s head and descends to earth in a luminous cascade.
FAQs
Śiva mediates overwhelming divine power into a form that can bless the world—grace makes the transcendent accessible.
The verse supports the broader tīrtha-māhātmya by grounding sanctity in Gaṅgā’s descent from Rudra’s head, a key sacred-geography motif.
No explicit rite; it narrates the divine release that underwrites later practices such as river-bathing and tīrtha observance.