Skanda Purana — Vishnu Khanda, Shloka 81
अगस्त्य उवाच । इत्युक्त्वा मुनिराजेंद्रो लक्ष्मणं सुरसं गतम् । शेषं संस्थाप्य तत्तीर्थे भूभारहरणक्षमम् । लक्ष्मणं यानमारोप्य प्रतस्थे दिवमादरात्
agastya uvāca | ityuktvā munirājeṃdro lakṣmaṇaṃ surasaṃ gatam | śeṣaṃ saṃsthāpya tattīrthe bhūbhāraharaṇakṣamam | lakṣmaṇaṃ yānamāropya pratasthe divamādarāt
Agastya said: Having spoken thus, the foremost lord among sages installed Śeṣa at that tīrtha—Śeṣa who could remove the burden of the earth. Then, placing Lakṣmaṇa upon a celestial conveyance, he reverently departed for heaven.
Agastya
Type: tirtha
Listener: Implied audience within the narrative frame (not named in this verse)
Scene: Agastya, radiant and austere, performs a consecration at a riverside tīrtha: Śeṣa (serpent with many hoods) is established as a sacred presence; nearby, Lakṣmaṇa is gently lifted onto a celestial vimāna, which ascends toward the sky as Agastya departs heavenward.
FAQs
Tīrthas are not only locations but sanctified presences established through divine beings and sagely acts, linking earth to the divine realm.
The particular Ayodhyā tīrtha where Śeṣa is said to have been installed, forming part of the site’s origin-myth (māhātmya).
No direct ritual is prescribed here; the verse provides the tīrtha’s sanctifying narrative (pratiṣṭhā/establishment).