Adhyaya 346
This adhyāya is cast as Īśvara’s instruction, locating a sacred solar manifestation called Karkoṭaka-ravi in the Āgneya (southeastern) quarter of Prabhāsa-kṣetra. It declares that mere darśana of this form delights all the deities, so that one localized epiphany becomes a meeting-point of pan-divine approval. It then lays down a brief ritual rule: worship according to vidhi on saptamī (the seventh lunar day) when it coincides with Sunday (ravivāra), offering dhūpa (incense), gandha (fragrance), and anulepana (unguents). The practical doctrinal lesson is purification: right timing and proper offerings grant release from sarva-kilbiṣa, all moral and ritual taint. The colophon places it in the Skanda Mahāpurāṇa of 81,000 verses, within the seventh Prabhāsa Khaṇḍa, in the Prabhāsakṣetramāhātmya section, as chapter 346.
Shlokas
Verse 1
ईश्वर उवाच । तस्मादाग्नेयदिग्भागे स्थितः कर्कोटको रविः । पूर्वकल्पे महादेवि स्मृतः कर्कोटकान्वितः
Īśvara said: “From there, in the south-eastern quarter, the Sun known as Karkoṭaka is established. O Great Goddess, in a former aeon he was remembered as being associated with Karkoṭaka.”
Verse 2
तस्य दर्शनमात्रेण प्रीताः स्युः सर्वदेवताः । सप्तम्यां रविवारेण धूप गंधानुलेपनैः । पूजयेद्यो विधानेन मुच्यते सर्वकिल्बिषैः
By merely beholding him, all the gods become pleased. Whoever, on the seventh lunar day that falls on a Sunday, worships him according to rite with incense, fragrances, and unguents is released from all sins.
Verse 346
इति श्रीस्कांदे महापुराण एकाशीतिसाहस्र्यां संहितायां सप्तमे प्रभासखण्डे प्रथमे प्रभासक्षेत्रमाहात्म्ये कर्कोटकार्कमाहात्म्यवर्णनंनाम षटचत्वारिंशदुत्तरत्रिशततमोऽध्यायः
Thus ends, in the revered Skanda Mahāpurāṇa—within the Saṃhitā of eighty-one thousand verses—the three hundred and forty-sixth chapter, entitled “The Description of the Greatness of Karkoṭakārka,” in the Prabhāsa Khaṇḍa, within the Prabhāsa-kṣetra-māhātmya.