Skanda Purana — Nagara Khanda, Shloka 2
भीष्म उवाच । गंगायामस्थिपातोऽत्र येषां संजायते नृणाम् । न तेषां नारको वह्निः प्रभवेन्मध्यवर्तिनाम्
bhīṣma uvāca | gaṃgāyāmasthipāto'tra yeṣāṃ saṃjāyate nṛṇām | na teṣāṃ nārako vahniḥ prabhavenmadhyavartinām
Bhīṣma said: For those whose bones are consigned here into the Gaṅgā, the infernal fire does not prevail over them—even if they were otherwise destined for the middle regions of suffering.
Bhīṣma
Tirtha: Gaṅgā
Type: river
Listener: Yudhiṣṭhira
Scene: Bhīṣma declares the protective power of consigning bones into the Gaṅgā: the infernal fire cannot touch such persons.
FAQs
Gaṅgā-related funerary rites are praised as powerful purifiers that avert hellish consequences and uplift the departed.
The Gaṅgā tīrtha—Gaṅgā as a sacred river and pilgrimage locus within the Nāgara-khaṇḍa’s tīrtha-glorification.
Asthi-visarjana/asthi-pāta—consigning the departed’s bones/ashes into the Gaṅgā.