Skanda Purana — Prabhasa Khanda, Shloka 5
सा श्रुत्वा भर्तृनिधनमर्जुनाच्च महासती । गंगातीरे समुत्पाद्य पावकं पावकप्रभा । समुत्सृज्य महाकायं नदीभूत्वा विनिर्ययौ
sā śrutvā bhartṛnidhanamarjunācca mahāsatī | gaṃgātīre samutpādya pāvakaṃ pāvakaprabhā | samutsṛjya mahākāyaṃ nadībhūtvā viniryayau
अर्जुन से पति का निधन सुनकर वह महासती—अग्नि-सी तेजस्विनी—गंगा-तट पर अग्नि प्रज्वलित कर बैठी। अपने विशाल देह को त्यागकर वह नदीरूप होकर प्रस्थान कर गई।
Narrator (continuing Īśvara’s account)
Tirtha: Jāmbavatī-nadī (origin episode)
Type: river
Listener: Devī
Scene: Jāmbavatī, radiant like fire, hears from Arjuna of her husband’s death; on the Gaṅgā bank she kindles a pyre, enters the blaze, and her essence streams forth as a newly born river flowing onward.
FAQs
Purity of resolve and devotion is mythically transfigured into sacred geography, turning personal dharma into a public tīrtha for all.
The Jāmbavatī River, whose sanctity is explained through her transformation.
Implicitly, the passage sanctifies the river as a place of future snāna (bathing) and merit, elaborated in subsequent verses.
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