Adhyaya 356
Īśvara instructs the Goddess to go to the deity/liṅga called Bahusuvarṇaka or Bahusuvarṇeśvara, situated in the eastern sector (hiraṇyā-pūrva-dik-bhāga) of the sacred Prabhāsa landscape. The chapter explains the site’s holiness through an earlier precedent: Dharmaputra is said to have performed an exceedingly difficult yajña there and to have established a powerful liṅga named Bahusuvarṇa. That liṅga is also known as “Sarveśvara,” the giver of the fruits of all sacrifices (sarva-kratu-phala-da), and is described as ritually complete through its association with the waters of Sarasvatī. Bathing there and offering piṇḍadāna are taught to uplift vast ancestral lines (kula-koṭi) and to confer honor in Rudra’s realm. Sadāśiva further affirms that worship offered with fragrance and flowers according to rule yields the merit of “crore-fold” worship (koṭi-pūjā-phala).
Shlokas
Verse 1
ईश्वर उवाच । ततो गच्छेन्महादेवि देवं बहुसुवर्णकम् । हिरण्यापूर्वदिग्भागे स्थाने बहुसुवर्णके
Īśvara said: “Then, O Great Goddess, one should go to the deity called Bahusuvarṇaka, in the golden eastern quarter, at the place known as Bahusuvarṇaka.”
Verse 2
धर्मपुत्रेण यत्रैव कृतो यज्ञः सुदुष्करः । नाम्ना बहुसुवर्णेति स्थाप्य लिंगं महाप्रभम्
There indeed the son of Dharma performed a most difficult sacrifice; and, establishing a radiant and mighty Liṅga, he named it Bahusuvarṇa.
Verse 3
सर्वक्रतूनां फलदं नाम्ना सर्वेश्वरं विदुः । तत्रैव संस्थितं लिंगं पूर्णं सारस्वतैर्जलैः
They know it by the name Sarveśvara—the giver of the fruits of all sacrifices. There itself stands the Liṅga, complete and sanctified with the waters of Sarasvatī.
Verse 4
स्नात्वा तत्र वरारोहे पिण्डदानं ददाति यः । कुलकोटिं समुद्धृत्य रुद्रलोके महीयते
O fair-hipped Goddess, whoever bathes there and offers piṇḍa-dāna (ancestral oblations) uplifts ten million of his lineage and is honored in Rudra’s world.
Verse 5
यस्तं पूज यते भक्त्या गन्धपुष्पैर्विधानतः । कोटिपूजाफलं तस्य तथेत्याह सदाशिवः
Whoever worships Him with devotion, offering fragrances and flowers according to the proper rite, gains the fruit of a crore of acts of worship; thus declares Sadāśiva.
Verse 355
इति श्रीस्कांदे महापुराण एकाशीतिसाहस्र्यां संहितायां सप्तमे प्रभासखण्डे प्रथमे प्रभासक्षेत्रमाहात्म्ये बहुसुवर्णेश्वरमाहात्म्यवर्णनंनाम पञ्चपञ्चाशदुत्तरत्रिशततमोऽध्यायः
Thus ends the three-hundred-and-fifty-sixth chapter, called “The Description of the Greatness of Bahusuvarṇēśvara,” in the first Prabhāsa-kṣetra-māhātmya of the seventh book, the Prabhāsa Khaṇḍa, within the revered Śrī Skanda Mahāpurāṇa of eighty-one thousand verses.