the Lokapalas, the Siddhas, the Pitris adored by the worlds, the great Rishis-Sanatkumara and others, stainless Brahmarshis-Angiras and others,—­the Nagas, the Suparnas, the Siddhas, the Snakes, the Rivers, the Seas, the Gandharvas, the Apsaras, and the Lord Hari with Prajapati.  There in that tirtha are three fiery caverns between which the Ganga, that foremost of tirthas, rolleth rapidly.  There in that region also the world-purifying daughter of the sun, Yamuna, celebrated over the three worlds, uniteth with the Ganga.  The country between the Ganga and the Yamuna is regarded as the mons veneris of the world, and Prayaga as the foremost point of that region.  The tirthas Prayaga, Pratisthana, Kamvala, Aswatara and Bhogavati are the sacrificial platforms of the Creator.  There in those places, O foremost of warriors, the Vedas and the Sacrifices, in embodied forms, and the Rishis endued with wealth of asceticism, adore Brahma, and there the gods and rulers of territories also celebrate their sacrifices.  The learned, however, say that of all these tirthas, O exalted one, Prayaga is the most sacred, in fact, the foremost of all tirthas in the three worlds.  By going to that tirtha, by singing its praises, or by taking a little earth from it, one is cleansed from every sin.  He that bathes in that confluence celebrated over the world, acquires all the merits of the Rajasuya and the horse-sacrifices.  This sacrificial place is worshipped by the gods themselves.  If a man giveth there ever so little, it increaseth, O Bharata, a thousandfold.  O child, let not the texts of the Veda, nor the opinions of men dissuade thy mind from the desire of dying at Prayaga.  O son of the Kuru race, the wise say that six hundred million and ten thousand tirthas exist at Prayaga.  Bathing in the confluence of Ganga and Yamuna, one obtains the merit that attaches to the four kinds of knowledge and the merits also of those that are truthful.  There at Prayaga is the excellent tirtha of Vasuki called Bhogavati.  He that batheth in it, obtaineth the merit of the horse-sacrifice.  There also in the Ganga is the tirtha famed over the three worlds, called Ramaprapatana, which conferreth the merit of ten horse-sacrifices, O son of the Kuru race!  Wherever may a person bathe in the Ganga, he earneth merit equal to that of a trip to Kurukshetra.  An exception, however, is made in favour of Kanakhala, while the merit attaching to Prayaga is the greatest.  Having committed a hundred sins, he that bathes in the Ganga, hath all his sins washed off by the waters thereof, even as fuel is consumed by fire.  It hath been said that in the Satyayuga all the tirthas were sacred; in the Treta, Pushkara alone was such; in Dwapara, Kurukshetra; and in the Kali-yuga, the Ganga alone is sacred.  In Pushkara, one should practise austerities; in Mahalaya, one should give