Adhyaya 193
This adhyāya is framed as a direct theological discourse of Īśvara to Mahādevī. Īśvara instructs the pilgrim within Prabhāsa-kṣetra to proceed to Yameśvara, praised as “anuttama” (unsurpassed, most excellent). The shrine is located with directional clarity, serving as a ritual guide: it lies not far away in the nairṛta (southwestern) sector of Prabhāsa-kṣetra. Its efficacy is stated succinctly: mere darśana (sacred viewing) brings pāpa-śamana (the removal/appeasement of sin) and grants the fruit of all desired aims (sarva-kāma-phala-prada). The colophon identifies the text as part of the Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, the 81,000-verse compilation—within the seventh (Prabhāsa) khaṇḍa, the first Prabhāsa-kṣetra-māhātmya—and names this chapter as the description of Yameśvara’s māhātmya.
Shlokas
Verse 1
ईश्वर उवाच । ततो गच्छेन्महादेवि यमेश्वरमनुत्तमम् । तस्यैव नैरृते भागे नातिदूरे व्यवस्थितम्
Īśvara said: “Then, O Great Goddess, one should go to the unsurpassed Yameśvara, situated not far away in the south-western quarter of that very place.”
Verse 2
दर्शनात्पापशमनं सर्वकामफलप्रदम्
Through darśana (sacred beholding), sins are pacified, and this shrine bestows the fruits of all desired aims.
Verse 193
इति श्रीस्कान्दे महापुराण एकाशीतिसाहस्र्यां संहितायां सप्तमे प्रभासखंडे प्रथमे प्रभासक्षेत्रमाहात्म्ये यमेश्वरमाहात्म्यवर्णनं नाम त्रिणवत्युत्तरशततमोऽध्यायः
Thus ends the one-hundred-and-ninety-third chapter, entitled “The Description of the Greatness of Yameśvara,” in the Prabhāsa-khaṇḍa—within the first division, the Prabhāsakṣetra-māhātmya—of the Śrī Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, in the Saṃhitā of eighty-one thousand verses.