The Skanda Purana
by G. V. Tagare | 1950 | 2,545,880 words
This page describes Greatness of Pratyusheshvara (Pratyusha-ishvara) which is chapter 108 of the English translation of the Skanda Purana, the largest of the eighteen Mahapuranas, preserving the ancient Indian society and Hindu traditions in an encyclopedic format, detailling on topics such as dharma (virtous lifestyle), cosmogony (creation of the universe), mythology (itihasa), genealogy (vamsha) etc. This is the one hundred eighth chapter of the Prabhasa-kshetra-mahatmya of the Prabhasa Khanda of the Skanda Purana.
Chapter 108 - Greatness of Pratyūṣeśvara (Pratyūṣa-īśvara)
[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]
Īśvara said:
1-3. Thereafter, O great goddess, a devotee should go to the excellent Liṅga of Vasus. It is within a distance of fifty Dhanus from Someśa, in the north-eastern direction.
The Liṅga installed there, O great goddess, has four faces and iṣ a favourite of Suras. Its name is Pratyūṣeśvara and it destroys great sins.
By visiting that deity, sins incurred in the course of seven births get destroyed, O lady of excellent countenance. It is truth, it is the truth.
The Devī said:
4. Who is this person named Pratyūṣa? Whose son was he? How was the Liṅga installed? How is he famous? O Śaṅkara do tell me all this.
Īśvara said:
5. O goddess, Dakṣa, a son of Brahmā, is remembered as Prajāpati. He had sixty daughters. He gave ten of them to Dharma.
6. Among them, O great goddess, one was well-known as Viśvā. She begot of Dharma eight sons.
7. They are glorified as the eight Vasus. They are Apa, Dhruva, Soma, Dhara, Anala, Anila, Pratyūṣa and Prabhāsa.
8. The seventh among them (the Vasus) is well-known as Pratyūṣa. O goddess of Devas, desirous of begetting a son, he came to the holy spot of Prabhāsa.
9. He came to know that the holy spot is Kāmika (wish-yielding) and installed Maheśvara. O my beloved, he performed an elaborate penance for a hundred years according to divine reckoning. Tranquil and concentrating his mind within himself, he meditated on Mahādeva.
10. O goddess, the unsullied great Lord became pleased with his devotion and granted him a son Devala, a most excellent one among Yogins.
11. Ever since then, by the power of that Liṅga, Devala, the son of Pratyūṣa, became a divine Yogin.
12. For this same reason, the deity is designated Pratyūṣeśvara.
13. If any person without a child propitiates that Lord, O goddess of Devas, the line of progeny in his race never gets broken.
14. O great goddess, if anyone worships the excellent deity Pratyūṣeśvara, early at dawn with excellent devotion and perpetual restraint of himself, his sin gets destroyed even if it is incurred by the slaughter of a Brāhmaṇa.
15. A bull should be given away there by those who wish to get the perfect fruit of the pilgrimage.
16. The devotee should keep awake at night on the fourteenth lunar day in the dark half of the month of Māgha. By keeping awake one shall attain the fruit of all Dānas and Yajñas.