Adhyaya 229
Chapter 229 records Īśvara’s instruction to Mahādevī, drawing her attention to the tri-path-going Gaṅgā (tripathagāminī) in the Īśānya (northeast) direction. This Gaṅgā is praised as svayaṃbhū, self-manifest, and also as the sacred stream once brought forth from the earth’s depths by Viṣṇu for a saving purpose—connected with the Yādavas and with the universal pacification of sin. A ritual and ethical sequence follows: bathing (snāna) at this place, even when attained through accumulated merit, and performing śrāddha according to proper procedure (vidhāna), grants a state free from remorse over deeds done or left undone. The text then declares an equivalence of merit: the puṇya of gifting the entire cosmos (brahmāṇḍa) is said to be matched by bathing in Jāhnavī’s waters during Kārttikī. Finally, it notes that in Kali-yuga such darśana becomes harder to obtain, thereby heightening the value of snāna–dāna at Prabhāsa in Gaṅgā/Jāhnavī waters.
Shlokas
Verse 1
ईश्वर उवाच । ततो गच्छेन्महादेवि गंगां त्रिपथगामिनीम् । अनरकेशतो देवि ऐशान्यां दिशि संस्थिताम्
Īśvara said: Then, O great Goddess, one should go to the Gaṅgā who flows along the three paths; O Devī, she is situated to the northeast, from Anarakeśa.
Verse 2
स्वयंभूतां धरामध्यादानीतां विष्णुना पुरा । यादवानां तु मुक्त्यर्थं सर्वपापोपशान्तये
Self-manifest, she was once brought by Viṣṇu from the very midst of the earth, for the liberation of the Yādavas and for the quelling of all sins.
Verse 3
यस्तत्र कुरुते स्नानं कथंचित्पुण्यसंचयात् । श्राद्धं चैव विधानेन न स शोचेत्कृताकृते
Whoever bathes there—through some accumulation of merit—and also performs śrāddha according to the prescribed rite, does not grieve over what was done or left undone.
Verse 4
ब्रह्माण्डं सकलं दत्त्वा यत्पुण्यफलमाप्नुयात् । तत्पुण्यं प्राप्नुयाद्देवि कार्तिक्यां जाह्नवीजले
O Devī, the very merit whose fruit one would gain by gifting the entire universe—one attains that same merit by bathing and performing rites in the waters of Jāhnavī in the month of Kārtika.
Verse 5
कलौ युगे तु संप्राप्ते दुर्ल्लभं तत्र दर्शनम् । किं पुनः स्नानदानं तु प्रभासे जाह्नवीजले
When the Kali age has arrived, even mere darśana—the sight of that sacred presence—is hard to obtain; what then of bathing and giving dāna in the waters of Jāhnavī at Prabhāsa!
Verse 229
इति श्रीस्कांदे महापुराण एकाशीतिसाहस्र्यां संहितायां सप्तमे प्रभासखण्डे प्रथमे प्रभासक्षेत्रमाहात्म्ये गंगामाहात्म्यवर्णनंनामैकोनत्रिंशदुत्तरद्विशततमोऽध्यायः
Thus ends the two-hundred-and-twenty-ninth chapter, called “The Description of the Greatness of Gaṅgā,” in the first Prabhāsa-kṣetra Māhātmya, within the seventh Prabhāsa Khaṇḍa of the Śrī Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, in the Ekāśītisāhasrī Saṃhitā.