नारायणेन शुश्रूषा शूलस्थेन कृता पुरा । तत्र स्नात्वा महाराज मुच्यते पापकञ्चुकात्
nārāyaṇena śuśrūṣā śūlasthena kṛtā purā | tatra snātvā mahārāja mucyate pāpakañcukāt
Autrefois, Nārāyaṇa y accomplit un service, demeurant sur un pieu. En se baignant en ce lieu, ô grand roi, on est délivré du vêtement du péché.
Śrī Mārkaṇḍeya (continuation of narration)
Tirtha: Māṇḍavya-Nārāyaṇa-siddha tīrtha (unnamed here)
Type: tirtha
Listener: Great King (mahārāja)
Scene: A flashback tableau: Nārāyaṇa performing devoted service while impaled/affixed on a stake (śūla), conveying endurance; foreground pilgrims bathe in the river, symbolically shedding a dark cloak of sin.
Selfless service and severe endurance are sanctified, and tīrtha-bathing performed at such a charged place is said to dissolve accumulated sin.
The same Revā Khaṇḍa tīrtha linked with Nārāyaṇa’s śuśrūṣā and the tradition of being śūlastha; it is praised for freeing one from sin.
Snāna (bathing) at that tīrtha is prescribed as the act that grants release from pāpa.