Next one should go to Prayaga, praised by the seers. There dwell Brahma and the gods, the quarters of the world with their lords, the lokapalas, the sadhyas, the ancestors of the Nairrita line, Sanatkumara and the great seers, Angiras and the other brahmarishis, nagas, suparnas, siddhas, cakracaras, rivers, oceans, gandharvas, and apsaras; there too abides blessed Hari, honored before Prajapati. There are three fire-pits, and between them flows the Jahnavi, issuing forth from Prayaga at the head of all tirthas; there the famed daughter of the Sun, the Yamuna, joins the Ganga, purifier of the world. The space between the Ganga and the Yamuna is called the loins of the earth, and the seers know Prayaga as the sacred point at the end of those loins; Prayaga together with Pratishthana, Kambala and Ashvatara, the tirtha Bhogavati, and the altar is called the sacrificial ground of Prajapati. There the Vedas and the sacrifices, having taken visible form, worship Prajapati, and the seers of great vows do the same, while the gods and the wheel-wandering ones offer their rites. There is no place holier than Prayaga in the three worlds: it surpasses all other tirthas in power. By merely hearing of that tirtha, by uttering its name, or even by touching its clay, a man is freed from sin. Whoever bathes at the confluence with a firm vow obtains the fruit of the rajasuya and the ashvamedha; this is a sacrificial ground honored even by the gods, and there even a small gift given becomes great. Neither by the word of the Vedas nor by common report should your resolve waver concerning death at Prayaga. Ten thousand tirthas, and sixty million more besides, are said to dwell there together; whatever merit belongs to knowledge of the four Vedas or to speakers of truth, one obtains simply by bathing at the confluence of the Ganga and the Yamuna. There too is Bhogavati, the foremost tirtha of Vasuki — whoever bathes there attains the ashvamedha. There is Hamsaprapatana, a tirtha renowned in all three worlds, and Dashashvamedhika on the Ganga as well. Wherever the Ganga flows, that land is a grove of austerity, a field of perfection resting on the banks of the Ganga — this truth should be whispered in the ear of twice-born men, of the virtuous, of one's own son, of friends, and of a devoted disciple. This is righteous, this is holy, this is pure, this is joyful, this leads to heaven, this is delightful, this is purifying and supreme; this is the secret of the great seers, the release from every sin. Studying it among the twice-born, one attains spotless purity. Whoever, ever pure, constantly hears this account of the merit of the tirthas will remember many past births and rejoice in the heavens. And those tirthas that cannot be reached, as well as those that have been named but are unreachable, one should visit in the mind, viewing all tirthas together. These are resorted to by the Vasus, the Sadhyas, the Adityas, the Maruts and the Ashvins, and by seers equal to gods who seek merit. So you too, O Kaurava of good vows, go by this same rule to the tirthas, steadfast: holiness grows through holiness. Reached first through cultivated causes, through faith and through the teaching heard and seen, these tirthas are attained by the virtuous who follow the wise. Not the unrestrained, not the unpurified soul, not the impure, not the thief, and not the crooked-minded man truly bathes in the tirthas, O Kaurava. But by you, of right conduct, ever a seer of dharma and artha, your ancestors have been carried across, and all your forefathers; the gods headed by Pitamaha, together with the hosts of seers, are ever gladdened by your dharma, knower of dharma. You shall attain the worlds of the Vasus, O equal of Vasava, and you shall win, Bhishma, enduring and mighty fame upon the earth.