The Skanda Purana
by G. V. Tagare | 1950 | 2,545,880 words
This page describes Greatness of Humkara Kupa which is chapter 339 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 three hundred thirty-ninth chapter of the Prabhasa-kshetra-mahatmya of the Prabhasa Khanda of the Skanda Purana.
Chapter 339 - Greatness of Huṃkāra Kūpa
[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]
Īśvara said:
1-2a. Thereafter, O great goddess, one should go to the well, renowned in all the three worlds, on the beautiful bank of Devikā. It is filled with the sound ‘Hum’. Then, O beautiful woman, the water again goes down there.
2b-4. O great goddess, it is reported that formerly there was (a sage) called Taṇḍi who resided on the bank of Devikā. He was a great devotee of Śiva, who performed penance.
O lady of excellent countenance, while he was thus performing penance in that part of country, there came an old deer blind in eyes. He fell in a fathomless deep ditch devoid of water.
5. Seeing him the sage was moved with compassion. But having adopted (the vow of) silence, he repeatedly uttered the Huṃ sound, O beautiful lady.
6. Then by the sound ‘Hum’ of the sage, the ditch was overfilled (with water) and the deer came out with difficulty from the water.
7-9a. Assuming human form, he (the deer) who was extremely surprised, asked the sage about the attainment of the desired fruit from the act of falling (in the ditch) in the form of deer and emergence by becoming transformed into a man.
The excellent Brāhmaṇa told him that (it was) the efficacy of that water. “It is thereby that I attained the status of man. There is no other reason.”
9b-10. Then the water again entered underground. Urged by curiosity, the sage uttered the sound ‘Hum’. The well was filled again with water as before.
11. Considering it (the well) to be a prominent Tīrtha, he took his bath and gave oblations to satisfy Pitṛs. Thence he attained the highest goal.
12-13a. Even today, if the sound Huṃ is uttered it is flooded with water.
Even if a man be a confirmed sinner, if he goes there with devotion, he does not get the birth of a man on the surface of the earth.
13b-14. If a person sanctifies himself by taking a bath there and performs Śrāddha, he is absolved of all sins and is prai[???] [praised?] in the world of Pitṛs. He redeems seven generations preceding him and seven following him.