Adhyaya 168
This chapter is a shrine-focused māhātmya spoken as an utterance of Īśvara, directing the devotee to the Goddess Śālakaṭaṅkaṭā in the sacred Prābhāsika region. It fixes her place within the pilgrimage landscape by locating her south of Sāvitrī and east of Raivatā, linking her worship to an already known grid of holy sites. Śālakaṭaṅkaṭā is praised as the remover of great sins and the destroyer of all suffering, revered by gandharvas, and portrayed with a fearsome form and flashing fangs (sphurad-daṃṣṭrā). Her installation is connected with Poulastya, and she is celebrated as a mighty slayer of formidable foes, including the “mahiṣaghnī” motif of killing the buffalo-demon. A calendrical rule follows: worship on the fourteenth lunar day (caturdaśī) in the month of Māgha grants prosperity, intelligence, and continuity of the family line. Finally, a dāna-centered rite is taught—pleasing her through paśu-pradāna and offerings such as bali, pūjā, and upahāra brings freedom from enemies—forming the chapter’s principal phalaśruti.
Shlokas
Verse 1
ईश्वर उवाच । ततो गच्छेन्महादेवि देवीं शालकटंकटाम् । सावित्र्या दक्षिणे भागे रैवतात्पूर्वतः स्थिताम्
Īśvara said: “Then, O Mahādevī, one should go to the Goddess Śālakaṭaṃkaṭā, who stands to the south of Sāvitrī and to the east of Raivata.”
Verse 2
महापापोपशमनीं सर्वदुःखविनाशनीम् पूजितां सर्वगन्धर्वैः स्फुरद्दंष्ट्रोग्रभीषणाम्
She who pacifies great sins and destroys all sorrows—worshipped by all Gandharvas—terrifying in her fierce form, with flashing fangs.
Verse 3
महाप्रचण्डदैत्यघ्नीं पौलस्त्येन प्रतिष्ठिताम् । महिषघ्नीं महाकायां क्षेत्रे प्राभासिके स्थिताम्
The slayer of exceedingly fierce demons—established by Paulastya—she who kills the buffalo-demon, vast-bodied, and abiding in the Prābhāsika (Prabhāsa) sacred field.
Verse 4
माघे मासे चतुर्दश्यां यस्ता माराधयेन्नरः । स भवेत्पशुमान्धीमांल्लक्ष्मीवान्पुत्रवान्सुधीः
Whoever, on the fourteenth lunar day of the month of Māgha, devotedly worships Her, becomes endowed with cattle and prosperity, possessed of intelligence, blessed with Lakṣmī (fortune), and gifted with sons and good discernment.
Verse 5
यस्तां पशुप्रदानेन सन्तर्पयति भक्तितः । बलिपूजोपहारैश्च स स्याच्छत्रु विवर्जितः
Whoever, with devotion, satisfies Her by gifting cattle, and also by offerings, worship, and oblations, becomes free from enemies.
Verse 168
इति श्रीस्कान्दे महापुराण एकाशीतिसाहस्र्यां संहिताया सप्तमे प्रभासखण्डे प्रथमे प्रभासक्षेत्रमाहात्म्ये शालकटंकटा माहात्म्यवर्णनंनामाष्टषष्ट्युत्तरशततमोऽध्यायः
Thus ends the one-hundred-and-sixty-eighth chapter, called “The Description of the Greatness of Śālakaṭaṃkaṭā,” in the first part, the Prabhāsa-kṣetra Māhātmya, within the seventh division, the Prabhāsa Khaṇḍa, of the Śrī Skanda Mahāpurāṇa (the Saṃhitā of eighty-one thousand verses).