Adhyaya 292
This adhyāya records Īśvara’s account of a sacred spot in the northern region beyond the place known as Kaurava-sañjñaka. There the Goddess Bhadrakālī undertakes intense tapas, and afterward, with supreme devotion, she establishes (saṃsthāpayāmāsa) Ravi/Sūrya. A ritual time is specified: Sunday (ravivāra) when it coincides with the seventh lunar day (saptamī). Offerings are highlighted—red flowers and red unguents/anointments—and a phalāśruti declares that worship performed with bhakti yields merit equal to the fruit of “a crore of sacrifices” (koṭi-yajña-phala), bringing release from vāta- and pitta-born ailments and other grave diseases. The chapter concludes with an injunction on giving: those who seek the full merit of pilgrimage should donate a horse (aśva-dāna) at that very place, joining shrine-worship, calendrical observance, and dāna into a single integrated sacred discipline.
Shlokas
Verse 1
ईश्वर उवाच । तस्मादुत्तरभागे तु स्थानात्कौरवसंज्ञकात् । भद्रकाली महादेवि तपः कृत्वा सुदुस्तरम्
Īśvara said: “Then, to the northern side from that place known as ‘Kaurava,’ O great Goddess, Bhadrakālī performed austerities (tapas) exceedingly difficult to undertake.”
Verse 2
रविं संस्थापयामास भक्त्या परमया युता । रविवारेण सप्तम्यां रक्त पुष्पानुलेपनैः
Endowed with supreme devotion, she established Ravi (the Sun-god). On a Sunday, on the seventh lunar day (Saptamī), she worshipped with red flowers and red unguents for anointing.
Verse 3
यस्तं पूजयते भक्त्या कोटियज्ञफलं लभेत् । मुच्यते वातपित्तोत्थै रोगैरन्यैश्च पुष्कलैः
Whoever worships Him with devotion gains merit equal to that of a crore of sacrifices, and is freed from diseases born of vāta and pitta, as well as from many other grievous ailments.
Verse 4
अश्वस्तत्रैव दातव्यः सम्यग्यात्राफलेप्सुभिः
Those who seek the complete fruit of the pilgrimage should donate a horse there itself, in that sacred place.
Verse 292
इति श्रीस्कांदे महापुराण एकाशीतिसाहस्र्यां संहितायां सप्तमे प्रभासखण्डे प्रथमे प्रभासक्षेत्रमाहात्म्ये न्यंकुमतीमाहात्म्ये भद्रकालीबालार्कमाहात्म्यवर्णनंनाम द्विनवत्युत्तरद्विशततमोऽध्यायः
Thus ends the two-hundred-and-ninety-second chapter, called “The Description of the Greatness of Bhadrakālī and Bālārka,” in the Prabhāsa Khaṇḍa of the Śrī Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, in the Ekāśītisāhasrī Saṃhitā—within the Prabhāsakṣetra Māhātmya, in the Nyaṅkumatī Māhātmya.