Adhyaya 226
This adhyāya conveys Īśvara’s instruction regarding a shrine called Meghēśvara, located in the earlier part of the kṣetra toward the nairṛta (southwest). The place is praised as a remover of sin (pāpa-mocana) and a destroyer of grave transgressions (sarva-pātaka-nāśana). The discourse then turns to a practical communal crisis—the fear of drought and absence of rain (anāvṛṣṭi-bhaya)—and prescribes a pacificatory rite (śānti) to be performed there. Learned brāhmaṇas are to conduct the śānti, and the earth is to be ritually consecrated with water (udaka) in the vāruṇī manner associated with Varuṇa, indicating a rain-invoking and order-restoring ceremony. It further declares that where the liṅga “established with clouds” is worshiped regularly, the fear of drought does not arise. Thus Meghēśvara is presented as a sacred assurance of ecological and social stability through disciplined devotion.
Shlokas
Verse 1
ईश्वर उवाच । तस्यैव पूर्वभागे तु नैरृते पापमोचनात् । मेघेश्वरेति विख्यातं सर्वपातकनाशनम्
Īśvara said: In the eastern part of that very sacred region, toward the south-west, there is a holy place renowned as Megheśvara. Because it releases one from sin, it is celebrated as the destroyer of all transgressions.
Verse 2
अनावृष्टिभये जाते शांतिं तत्रैव कारयेत् । वारुणीं विप्रमुख्यैस्तु भावयेदुदकैर्महीम्
When the fear of drought arises, one should have a rite of pacification performed right there. Led by eminent brāhmaṇas, one should conduct the Vāruṇī-rite and consecrate the earth with waters.
Verse 3
मेघैः प्रतिष्ठितं लिंगं यत्र नित्यं प्रपूज्यते । अनावृष्टिभयं किंचिन्न च तत्र प्रजायते
Where the liṅga established by the clouds is worshipped daily, there the fear of drought does not arise at all.
Verse 226
इति श्रीस्कांदे महापुराण एकाशीति साहस्र्यां संहितायां सप्तमे प्रभासखण्डे प्रथमे प्रभासक्षेत्रमाहात्म्ये मेघेश्वरमाहात्म्यवर्णनंनाम षड्विंशत्युत्तरद्विशततमोऽध्यायः
Thus ends the two-hundred-and-twenty-sixth chapter, called “The Description of the Greatness of Megheśvara,” in the Prabhāsa-khaṇḍa—within the Prabhāsakṣetra-māhātmya—of the Śrī Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, in the Saṃhitā of eighty-one thousand verses.