Skanda Purana — Nagara Khanda, Shloka 88
करिष्यति प्रवेशेन प्राणत्यागं नृपोत्तम । स च यास्यति यत्रास्ते पाताले हाटकेश्वरः
kariṣyati praveśena prāṇatyāgaṃ nṛpottama | sa ca yāsyati yatrāste pātāle hāṭakeśvaraḥ
हे नृपश्रेष्ठा! या जलात प्रवेश केल्याने तो प्राणत्याग करील; आणि पाताळात जिथे हाटकेश्वर विराजमान आहेत, त्या स्थानी तो जाईल।
Tripurāntaka (Śiva), inferred
Tirtha: Devīkuṇḍa-samudbhava-jala (waters arisen from Devīkuṇḍa) leading to Hāṭakeśvara
Type: kund
Listener: nṛpottama (best of kings)
Scene: A king stands at a sacred water’s edge; the surface shimmers like a doorway. Beyond it, a subterranean realm glows with golden hues where Hāṭakeśvara is enthroned; attendants and nāgas hint at Pātāla.
FAQs
The tīrtha narrative frames death undertaken in devotion and under divine ordinance as a passage to a divinely-guarded sacred realm.
Devīkuṇḍa (implied by the preceding verses) and the destination realm connected with Hāṭakeśvara in Pātāla.
Entry into the sacred water after Devī worship on the specified tithi; the verse describes the consequential prāṇatyāga and onward journey.