Adhyaya 359
This chapter is cast as Īśvara’s instruction to Mahādevī, guiding the pilgrim onward to a tīrtha named Nārāyaṇa. It gives a clear spatial marker: in the Īśāna (northeast) quarter of that tīrtha is a vāpī (stepwell/pond) called Śāṇḍilyā. The rite is set out in order: bathe there according to vidhi, then worship Ṛṣi Śāṇḍilya. The observance is anchored to Ṛṣi-pañcamī, and it is declared that for a pativratā woman, keeping the rule concerning (non-)contact surely removes fear of rajo-doṣa (menstrual/ritual impurity). The closing colophon places the passage in the Skanda Purāṇa, Prabhāsa Khaṇḍa, and names it the “Nārāyaṇa-tīrtha-māhātmya” narration.
Shlokas
Verse 1
ईश्वर उवाच । ततो गच्छेन्महादेवि तीर्थं नारायणाभिधम् । तस्यैवेशानदिग्भागे वापी शांडिल्यकीर्तिता
Īśvara said: “Then, O Great Goddess, one should go to the sacred ford called Nārāyaṇa-tīrtha. In its north-eastern quarter is a stepwell (vāpī) renowned as Śāṇḍilyā.”
Verse 2
स्नात्वा तत्रैव विधिवच्छांडिल्यं यः प्रपूजयेत् । ऋषिपंचम्यां विधिना नारी चैव पतिव्रता । स्पृष्ट्वास्पृष्ट्वा विमुच्येत रजोदोषभयाद्ध्रुवम्
Having bathed there according to the rite, whoever duly worships the sage Śāṇḍilya—then, on Ṛṣi-pañcamī, a devoted wife (pativratā) performing the observance as prescribed, by touching and then ritually cleansing again and again, is certainly freed from the fear of impurity connected with menstrual defilement.
Verse 358
इति श्रीस्कांदे महापुराण एकाशीतिसाहस्र्यां संहितायां सप्तमे प्रभासखण्डे प्रथमे प्रभासक्षेत्रमाहात्म्ये नारायणतीर्थमाहात्म्यवर्णनंनामा ष्टापंचाशदुत्तरत्रिशततमोऽध्यायः
Thus ends Chapter 359, entitled “The Description of the Greatness of Nārāyaṇa-tīrtha,” in the Prabhāsa Khaṇḍa, within the Prabhāsa-kṣetra Māhātmya, of the revered Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, in the Saṃhitā of eighty-one thousand verses.