Pitris, and thy prowess, O exalted one!  Blessed be thou and ask thou the boon thou choosest.  What is that thou desirest, O thou of great splendour!’ Thus addressed (by them), Rama, that foremost of smiters, said with joined hands these words unto the Pitris, stationed in the firmament, ’If ye have been gratified with me, if I have deserved your favour, I desire this favour of the Pitris, viz., that I may have pleasure again in ascetic austerities.  Let me also, through your power, be freed from the sin I have committed by exterminating, from wrath, the Kshatriya race.  Let also my lakes become tirthas celebrated over the world.  The Pitris, hearing these blessed words of Rama, were highly gratified, and filled with joy they answered him saying, ’Let thy asceticism increase in consequence of thy regard for the Pitris.  Thou hast exterminated the Kshatriyas from wrath.  Freed art thou already from that sin, for they have perished as a consequence of their own misdeeds.  Without doubt, these lakes of thine will become tirthas.  And if one, bathing in these lakes, offereth oblations of the water thereof to the Pitris, the latter gratified with him will grant him desire, difficult of fulfilment in the world as also eternal heaven.’  O king, having granted him these boons, the Pitris joyfully saluted Rama of the Bhrigu race and disappeared there and then.  It was thus that the lakes of the illustrious Rama of the Bhrigu race became sacred.  Leading a Brahmacharya mode of life and observing sacred vows, one should bathe in the lakes of Rama.  Bathing therein and worshipping Rama, one obtaineth, O king, the merit of gift of gold in abundance.  Proceeding next, O son of the Kuru race, to Vansamulaka, a pilgrim by bathing there, raiseth, O king, his own race.  O best of the Bharatas, arriving next at the tirtha called Kayasodhana, and bathing there, one purifieth, without doubt, his body, and proceeded with purified body to the blessed region of unrivalled excellence.  One should next repair, O virtuous one, to that tirtha, celebrated over the three worlds, called Lokoddara, where formerly Vishnu of great prowess had created the worlds.  Arriving at that tirtha which is adored by the three worlds one earneth, O king, by bathing there, numerous worlds for himself.  Repairing next with subdued soul to the tirtha called Sree, one acquires, by bathing there and worshipping the Pitris and the gods, high prosperity.  Leading a Brahmacharya mode of life and with concentrated soul, one should proceed next to the tirtha called Kapila.  Bathing there and worshipping one’s own Pitris and the gods, a man earneth the fruit of the gift of a thousand Kapila kine.  Repairing next to the tirtha called Surya and bathing there with subdued soul and worshipping the Pitris and the gods, fasting all the while, one obtaineth the fruit of the Agnishtoma sacrifice and goeth (finally) to the region of the Sun.  The pilgrim by proceeding next to Gobhavana and bathing there obtaineth the merit of the gift of a thousand