Adhyaya 136

Prompted by Pārvatī’s question about the river’s purifying course from Nandikuṇḍa and the tīrthas founded after Mount Arbuda, Śiva declares Kapālamocana/Kapālakuṇḍa to be the foremost ford. There he cast away the Brahmā-skull, making the place supremely purifying. The teaching then turns, in a Pulastya–Bhīṣma mode, to the tīrtha’s observances: gods and semi-divine beings frequent it, and bathing there, worshipping Kapāleśa, fasting for one night, and feeding brāhmaṇas bestow great sacrificial merit and lead to mokṣa. As an exemplum, Saudāsa (Mitrasaha), cursed into a rākṣasa state and burdened with brahma-hatyā, is cleansed through bathing associated with Sābhramatī/Nanditīrtha, while śrāddha performed there uplifts the ancestors. The phalaśruti concludes that hearing this māhātmya removes sins and grants sāyujya with Viṣṇu, and that praising Maheśvara shields one from sorrow until cosmic dissolution.