Adhyaya 272
This adhyāya is framed as a theological discourse spoken by Īśvara. He directs the pilgrim to behold, within the same sacred region, an eastern (prācī) spot near the Goddess’s presence (devyāḥ saṃnidhi). There a triad of liṅgas (liṅga-traya) is identified as belonging to the great-souled Tripura figures—Vidyunmālī, Tāraka, and Kapola. The chapter’s instruction links spatial orientation (the eastward location), shrine recognition (the three liṅgas), and ethical-ritual fruit: mere darśana, the reverent sight of the installed liṅga(s), is declared to free one from sin (pāpaiḥ pramucyate). The colophon places this chapter in the 81,000-verse Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, within the seventh Prabhāsa Khaṇḍa, first section Prabhāsakṣetramāhātmya, as the māhātmya of the three Tripura liṅgas.
Shlokas
Verse 1
ईश्वर उवाच । तत्रैव संस्थितं पश्येत्प्राची देव्यास्तु संनिधौ । लिंगत्रयं समाख्यातं त्रिपुराणां महात्मनाम्
Īśvara said: “There itself, near the holy presence of the goddess Prācī, one should behold a triad of liṅgas, renowned in connection with the great-souled Tripuras.”
Verse 2
विद्युन्माली तारकाख्यः कपोलाख्यस्तथैव च । तैश्च प्रतिष्ठितं लिंगं दृष्ट्वा पापैः प्रमुच्यते
Vidyunmālī, the one named Tāraka, and likewise the one called Kapola—having established a liṅga there—whoever beholds that liṅga is released from sins.
Verse 272
इति श्रीस्कांदे महापुराण एकाशीतिसाहस्र्यां संहितायां सप्तमे प्रभासखंडे प्रथमे प्रभासक्षेत्रमाहात्म्ये त्रिपुरलिंगत्रयमाहात्म्य वर्णनंनाम द्विसप्तत्युत्तरद्विशततमोऽध्यायः
Thus ends, in the Śrī Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, in the Saṃhitā of eighty-one thousand verses, in the seventh—Prabhāsa Khaṇḍa—within the first division called the Prabhāsakṣetra Māhātmya, the chapter entitled “The Description of the Greatness of the Three Tripura Liṅgas,” being Chapter 272.