Skanda Purana — Vishnu Khanda, Shloka 90
पौषे मासि विशेषेण यः कुर्यात्स्नानमादृतः । ब्राह्मणः क्षत्रियो वैश्यः शूद्रो वा वर्णसंकरः । स याति ब्रह्मणः स्थानं पुनरावृत्तिवर्जितम्
pauṣe māsi viśeṣeṇa yaḥ kuryātsnānamādṛtaḥ | brāhmaṇaḥ kṣatriyo vaiśyaḥ śūdro vā varṇasaṃkaraḥ | sa yāti brahmaṇaḥ sthānaṃ punarāvṛttivarjitam
पौष महिन्यात जो विशेषतः श्रद्धेने स्नान करतो—तो ब्राह्मण, क्षत्रिय, वैश्य, शूद्र किंवा वर्णसंकर असो—तो पुनर्जन्मरहित ब्रह्मलोकास प्राप्त होतो।
Brahmā (deduced; Vaiṣṇavakhaṇḍa framework)
Tirtha: Sarayū-snāna in Ayodhyā-kṣetra (implied)
Type: ghat
Listener: vipra (brāhmaṇa addressee implied in the surrounding passage)
Scene: Winter dawn at Ayodhyā: devotees of all backgrounds descend the ghāṭa to bathe in the Sarayū, mist rising, priests chanting, lamps and conch-sounds in the distance; the city’s sacred skyline behind.
FAQs
Sincere tīrtha-observance in sacred time is universally efficacious and can culminate in liberation-like fruit.
Ayodhyā’s sacred bathing tradition as taught in the Ayodhyāmāhātmya.
Reverent snāna (ritual bath) in the month of Pauṣa, open to all social categories.