Adhyaya 342
Chapter 342 records Īśvara’s guidance about a pāpa-hara (sin-removing) liṅga, said to have been self-established by Soma/Candra (the Moon) a short distance away in the south–nairṛtya (southern–southwestern) direction. Nearby is a sacred water-body called Amṛta-kuṇḍa, also known as Kalā-kuṇḍa. The chapter stresses ritual order: first perform snāna (sacred bathing) in the kuṇḍa, then worship “Candreśa/Chandreśvara.” The promised fruit is stated in ascetic measure—the devotee gains the merit of a thousand years of tapas. It also notes a tank (taḍāga) built by Candra, sixteen bow-lengths in extent and aligned east–west in relation to Chandreśa, functioning as a navigable sacred map. The colophon places the unit in the Prabhāsa Khaṇḍa, within the Prabhāsakṣetra-māhātmya, under the Aśāpūra-māhātmya stream.
Shlokas
Verse 1
ईश्वर उवाच । तस्य दक्षिणनैरृत्ये नातिदूरे व्यवस्थितम् । लिंगं पापहरं देवि स्वयं सोमप्रतिष्ठितम्
Īśvara said: O Goddess, to its south-west, not far away, there stands a sin-destroying liṅga, established by Soma (the Moon) himself.
Verse 2
तत्रैवामृतकुण्डं तु कलाकुण्डं तु तत्स्मृतम् । तत्र स्नात्वा तु चंद्रेशं यो नरः पूजयिष्यति
There itself is the Amṛta-kuṇḍa, also remembered as the Kalā-kuṇḍa. Having bathed there, the man who worships Candreśa (Candreśvara)…
Verse 3
स तु वर्षसहस्रस्य तपःफलमवाप्स्यति । तत्रैव संस्थितं देवि तडागं चंद्रनिर्मितम्
…he indeed attains the fruit of a thousand years of austerity. And there itself, O Goddess, is a lake fashioned by the Moon.
Verse 4
धनुःषोडशविस्तारं चंद्रेशात्पूर्वपश्चिमे । तत्पूर्वं ते समाख्यातं मुक्तिदानादिपूर्वकम्
Its extent is sixteen dhanus, lying to the east and west of Candreśa. Earlier I already described it to you, beginning with its power to bestow liberation and other fruits.
Verse 342
इति श्रीस्कांदे महापुराण एकाशीतिसाहस्र्यां संहितायां सप्तमे प्रभासखंडे प्रथमे प्रभासक्षेत्रमाहात्म्य आशापूरमाहात्म्ये चंद्रेश्वरकलाकुण्डतीर्थमाहात्म्यवर्णनंनाम द्विचत्वारिंशदुत्तरत्रिशततमोऽध्यायः
Thus ends the three-hundred and forty-second chapter—called “The Description of the Greatness of the Candreśvara–Kalākuṇḍa Tīrtha”—in the Āśāpūra Māhātmya within the first Prabhāsakṣetra Māhātmya of the seventh, Prabhāsa Khaṇḍa of the Śrī Skanda Mahāpurāṇa (in the Saṃhitā of eighty-one thousand verses).