Adhyaya 250
Īśvara speaks to Devī and points out a renowned liṅga called Gaṅgeśvara, famed throughout the three worlds and located to the west of Saṅgameśvara. The chapter recalls a mythic moment when Gaṅgā was summoned by Viṣṇu (named with epithets such as Prabhaviṣṇu/Prabhavaviṣṇu) for an abhiṣeka at a critical time. Afterward Gaṅgā beholds that kṣetra as exceedingly meritorious—visited by ṛṣis and crowded with liṅgas and the āśramas of ascetics—and, out of Śiva-bhakti, she establishes the liṅga there. The phalaśruti declares that mere darśana of this shrine grants the fruit of bathing in the Gaṅgā, and that one gains merit equal to a thousand Aśvamedha sacrifices.
Shlokas
Verse 1
ईश्वर उवाच । ततो गच्छेन्महादेवि लिंगं त्रैलोक्यविश्रुतम् । गंगेश्वरेति विख्यातं संगमेश्वरपश्चिमे
Īśvara said: “Then, O Mahādevī, one should go to the liṅga renowned throughout the three worlds, famed as ‘Gaṅgeśvara,’ to the west of Saṃgameśvara.”
Verse 2
यदा गंगा समाहूता विष्णुना प्रभविष्णुना । अन्तकालेऽभिषेकार्थं स्वकायस्य वरानने
O fair-faced Goddess, when Gaṅgā was summoned by Viṣṇu—the all-pervading Lord—at the final hour, for the purpose of anointing His own divine body,
Verse 3
ततो दृष्ट्वा तु तत्क्षेत्रं पुण्यं ह्यृषिनिषेवितम् । सर्वत्र व्यापितं लिंगैराश्रमैश्च तपस्विनाम्
Then, seeing that holy region—sanctified and frequented by sages—she beheld it spread everywhere with Śiva-liṅgas and with the hermitages of ascetics.
Verse 4
ततो गंगासरिच्छ्रेष्ठा पूर्वसागरगामिनी । स्थापयामास तल्लिंगं शिवभक्तिपरायणा
Then Gaṅgā—the foremost of rivers, flowing to the eastern ocean—established that liṅga, wholly devoted to the worship of Śiva.
Verse 5
तं दृष्ट्वा तु वरारोहे गंगास्नानफलं लभेत् । अश्वमेधसहस्रस्य फलं प्राप्नोति मानवः
O Lady of noble limbs, merely by beholding it one gains the fruit of bathing in the Gaṅgā; a person attains merit equal to a thousand Aśvamedha sacrifices.
Verse 250
इति श्रीस्कान्दे महापुराण एकाशीतिसाहस्र्यां संहितायां सप्तमे प्रभासखण्डे प्रथमे प्रभासक्षेत्रमाहात्म्ये गंगेश्वरमाहात्म्यवर्णनंनाम पञ्चाशदुत्तरद्विशततमोऽध्यायः
Thus ends the two-hundred-and-fiftieth chapter, called “The Description of the Greatness of Gaṅgeśvara,” in the Prabhāsa Khaṇḍa of the Śrī Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, within the Prabhāsa-kṣetra Māhātmya section of the eighty-one-thousand-verse Saṃhitā.