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117 End. (yatah khanditam taccheso lipyate ) asmin samvatsare asmakam dese tavadu varuso (?) nasti | sasyadikamadhikamadhikaprakarena | visayah | asmin granthe night yajna-vidvac-chayartha-sujana - dhairya-sila- deva- stangara-sambhoga- suvirakta vasantadyarttu varsa vairagya-krsna- yanca- dainya- kalamahima-sirvadesvarastu- ti-samsara - caturyugadharma vipraprasamsa - kaviprasamsa -vidyaprasamsa-bhagya-majjana - durja- nanyapadesa- satsangatividhiprabhava - yacaka- laghava kupatra- dhanika- daridra - paropa- kara-dattavastu-desa-kala-svarga-naraka lobha-nitiprabhtativividhapadarthavarnana visa- 10 yakapadyasansangahosti | No. 707. skanda puraniyapatalakhandah | Substance, country paper, 9 X 4 inches. Folia, 151. Lines, 9 on a page. Extent, 3000 slokas. Character, Nagara. Date, S. 1799 Sk. 1664. Place of deposit, Calcutta, Government of India. Appearance, old. Verse. Generally correct. Joojda ode no Skandapuraniya Patala-khanda. This name is taken from the colophon of the MS., but it is evidently incorrect. According to the Narada Purana, the Skanda Purana embraces seven khandas, viz., 1, Mahesvara; 2, Vaishnava; 3, Brahma; 4, Kas'i; 5, Avanti; 6, Nagara; and 7, Prabhasa, and none of these includes the subjects treated of in this work. The Padma Purana has a Patala-khanda, but it treats principally of the history of Rama and of his ancestors, as given in the Raghuvansa, and devotes a great portion of its space to a detailed description of Rama's horse-sacrifice; whereas this work, although beginning with a eulogium on Rama's house, notices Rama but casually, and has nothing to say about his horse-sacrifice. What the correct name of the work is, I cannot ascertain. The contents of the Puranas given in the Narada Purana, do not shew that any part of the Puranas treats of the Dharmaranya Kshetra, the principal subject of the work under notice, and I am, therefore, driven to the conclusion that it is either spurious, or an episode of one of the Upapuranas, the contents of which are not on record. The MS. includes 32 chapters as follow: 1, Enquiry about the Dharmaranya tirtha. 2, Origin of its name. 3, Yama performs a penance at the place. 4, Vardhani, a heavenly courtezan, sent to disturb the penance, and its consequences. 5, Duties of the inhabitants