Adhyaya 215

This adhyāya sets forth a brief instruction attributed to Śrī Mārkaṇḍeya, urging pilgrimage to Śṛṅgitīrtha and praising its saving power. The tīrtha is proclaimed “mokṣada,” a bestower of liberation for embodied beings, with the explicit assurance that whoever dies there attains mokṣa without doubt. The chapter then joins this same place to ancestral duty: by performing piṇḍadāna one becomes anṛṇa, freed from debt to the pitṛs, and through the merit thus gained the purified person is said to reach “gāṇeśvarī gati,” an exalted post-mortem destination associated with the Gāṇas within a Śaiva cosmological frame. In this way it unifies mokṣa, filial responsibility, and pilgrimage discipline into a single, place-centered sacred guideline.