111 - The Greatness of Prayāga

Agni said: 

1. Ishall describe the greatness of Prayāga, the excellent place, which confers enjoyment and emancipation. O Excellent sages! the gods Brahma, Vishņu and others stay at Prayaga. 

2. So also the rivers, oceans, siddhas (accomplished persons), gandharvas (semi-divine beings) (stay there). There are three fire-pits and the Ganges (flows) in the middle. 

3. (The river Yamunā), the daughter of Sun, renowned in the three worlds flows there with force having all sacred spots before her. 

4. (The land) in between (the rivers) Ganges and Yamuna is known to be the thigh of (goddess) earth. The sages knew that Prayāga is the generative organ situated in the thigh. 

5. Prayāga and Pratisthāna are the woollen blanket and the mule. The holy place of Bhogavati is the platform for the god of creation (Brahma). 

6-7. The scriptures and sacrificial rites are endowed with forms at Prayaga. By singing in praise of this sacred place, or by the repetition of (lord's) names or by touching the earth here (one) gets free from all sins. Charity, ancestral rites and recitation (of names of the god) done at Prayaga, the place of confluence (of the two rivers), has undecaying merits. 

8. O Twicc-born! One who has resolved to die at Prayaga at the end (of his term of life)should not change his mind on the authority of scriptures or on the words of the people. 

9-12. Ten thousand and six crores of sacred places are present only here. Hence Prayaga is the foremost (place). The Bhogavati, sacred spot of Väsuki (serpent chief) and the flight of swans are present here. One reaps the fruits of making a charity of a crores of cows by bathing at Prayaga three days in the month of magha (February-March). The learned have declared thus. It is easy to have access to Ganges all along its course, but very difficult at the (following) three places—Gangādvåra (Haridvåra), Prayaga and the confluence of Ganges with the ocean. One goes to heaven by giving alms here and one will become a monarch here itself. 

13-14. One who dies at the root of the banyan tree and the confluence goes to the abode of lord Vishņu. The sacred sands on which Urvasi (a nymph) had sported, the Sandhyåvața, the Koțitirtha, the Aśvamedha, the pure Manasa, and Vasaraka are all excellent places.