Adhyaya 179
This adhyāya is cast as a concise theological instruction from Īśvara to Mahādevī. It identifies the sacred liṅga called Māṇḍavyeśvara, praised as a destroyer of sin and even major transgressions (mahāpātaka-nāśana), and gives its pilgrim-facing location: to the south-east/southern corner from Siddheśa, at a distance of “three bows” (dhanuṣ-tritaya). It then prescribes a time-bound observance: in the month of Māgha, on the fourteenth lunar day (caturdaśī), the devotee should perform pūjā and keep a night vigil (jāgaraṇa). The phalāśruti promises that one who undertakes this with disciplined devotion will not return to mortal existence, and the colophon notes its placement within the Prabhāsa Khaṇḍa and the Prabhāsakṣetramāhātmya section.
Shlokas
Verse 1
ईश्वर उवाच । ततो गच्छेन्महादेवि लिंगं पापप्रणाशनम् । सिद्धेशाद्दक्षिणे कोणे धनुषां त्रितये स्थितम् । माण्डव्येश्वरनामानं महापातकनाशनम्
Īśvara said: “Then, O Great Goddess, one should go to the sin-destroying liṅga situated at the southern corner from Siddheśa, three bow-lengths away—named Māṇḍavyeśvara, the destroyer of great sins.”
Verse 2
माघे मासे चतुर्दश्यां पूजां जागरणं तथा । कुर्याद्योऽतीन्द्रियो मर्त्यो न स मर्त्ये पुनर्व्रजेत्
On the fourteenth lunar day in the month of Māgha, the one who performs worship and keeps vigil, inwardly disciplined, does not return again to mortal existence.
Verse 179
इति श्रीस्कांदे महापुराण एकाशीतिसाहस्र्यां संहितायां सप्तमे प्रभासखण्डे प्रथमे प्रभासज्ञेत्रमाहात्म्ये माण्डव्येश्वरमाहात्म्यवर्णनंनामैकोना शीत्युत्तरशततमोऽध्यायः
Thus ends the one-hundred-and-seventy-ninth chapter, called “The Description of the Greatness of Māṇḍavyeśvara,” in the first part, the Prabhāsa-kṣetra Māhātmya, within the seventh Khanda (Prabhāsa Khaṇḍa) of the Śrī Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, in the eighty-one-thousand-verse Saṃhitā.