Adhyaya 357
Introduced with “Īśvara uvāca,” this adhyāya directs Devī to the shrine of Śṛṅgeśvara, praised as “anuttama” (unsurpassed) and located near Śukastḥāna (Śuka’s place). It lays out a clear ritual course: one should go there, perform the sacred bath (snāna) at the site, and worship Śṛṅgeśa in the proper manner (vidhivat pūjā). The chapter teaches the Purāṇic link between correct pilgrimage practice and moral-spiritual purification. Śṛṅgeśvara is proclaimed “sarva-pātaka-nāśana” (the destroyer of all sins), and the promised fruit is release from every sin; Ṛṣyaśṛṅga’s earlier purification and liberation are cited as a precedent and model. The colophon places it within the Skanda Mahāpurāṇa: in the seventh (Prabhāsa) khaṇḍa, first subdivision (Prabhāsakṣetramāhātmya), as chapter 357, titled “Śṛṅgeśvaramāhātmyavarṇana.”
Shlokas
Verse 1
ईश्वर उवाच । ततो गच्छेन्महादेवि शृंगेश्वरमनुत्तमम् । शुकस्थानस्य सान्निध्ये सर्वपातकनाशनम्
Īśvara said: “Then, O Great Goddess, one should go to the unsurpassed Śṛṅgeśvara. In the very vicinity of Śuka’s sacred place, it destroys all sins.”
Verse 2
स्नात्वा तत्रैव विधिवच्छृंगेशं पूजयेन्नरः । मुक्तः स्यात्पातकैः सर्वैरृष्यशृंगो यथा पुरा
Having bathed there itself, a man should worship Śṛṅgeśa according to the due rite. He becomes freed from all sins—just as Ṛṣyaśṛṅga was in ancient times.
Verse 356
इति श्रीस्कांदे महापुराण एकाशीतिसाहस्र्यां संहितायां सप्तमे प्रभासखण्डे प्रथमे प्रभासक्षेत्रमाहात्म्ये शृंगेश्वरमाहात्म्यवर्णनंनाम षट्पञ्चाशदुत्तरत्रिशततमोऽध्यायः
Thus ends the three-hundred-and-fifty-seventh chapter, called “The Description of the Greatness of Śṛṅgeśvara,” in the Prabhāsa Khaṇḍa—within the Prabhāsa-kṣetra Māhātmya—of the revered Śrī Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, in the Saṃhitā of eighty-one thousand verses.