Page 72

68 opens with a request from Uma, who desires her lord to describe, for her information, all those sacred pools and rivers on the earth where funeral cakes should be offered to the manes, and in reply to this comprehensive question Siva gives her an account of all the sacred places, temples, pools and lingams in the city of Avanti, modern Ujjain, and its neighbourhood, and recites a number of stories to account for the sanctity of those places. The names of the places, and abstracts of the stories relating to them, are given below in Sanskrit. Beginning. sriganesaya namah | uma uvaca | prthivyam yani tirthani punyasca saritastatha | kathyantam tani yatnena sraddham yesu pradiyate || End. isvara uvaca | asti lokesu vikhyata ganga tripathaga nadi | sevita devagandharvairmunibhisva nisevita || tapanasya suta devi yamuna lokapavani | pitrnam vallabha devi mahapatakanasani || candrabhaga vitasta ca narmadamarasankatam | kuruksetram gaya devi prabhasam naimisam tatha || kedaram paskaracaiva tatha kayavarohanam | | tatha punyatamam devi mahakalavanam subham || yatraste srimahakalah papendhananjatasanah | ksetram yojanaparyyantam brahmahatyavinasanam || ityadi | ityete caturasitisankhyata isvarastava | kathita ye tvaya + + mahakalavane ++ || etesam devi yo yatram pratilomana lomatah | karisyati naro bhaktya sa yasyati param padam || yadyesam lingamekantu pasyedbhaktyatha va punah | sakulam tarayedeva paitakam matakam satam || esa te kathito devi prabhavapapanasanah | caturasitilinganam kim bhuyah srotumicchasi || || Colophon. iti skandapurane vyavantikhande caturasiti lingamahatmyam | sivamastu | samvat 1835 | visayah | isvarisvarathoh samvadena sraddhadanayogyapanyana divanadi nirupanaprasangat asiti- sankhyaka lingamahatmya kirttanam | tatra avantidese mahakalavanavarnanam | agastyesvara-