Skandapurana 16.83

Īśvara said: / Then, O great goddess, one should go to Yogeśvarī, the great goddess situated to the east of it, / who bestows the fruit of yogic perfection.

I shall relate her origin; listen endowed with faith. / Long ago, there was a tiger among the Dānavas named Mahiṣa, possessed of great strength,

an eminent one, O goddess, who brought terror to all the gods. / Changing forms at will, having subjugated the three worlds, he lived happily.

Then, at a certain time, by Brahmā, the creator of the worlds, / a captivating maiden of peerless beauty was created in heaven.

That beautiful, chaste maiden performed severe austerity. / Then she was once seen by Nārada, O fair-faced one.

Thereupon he was suddenly struck with great astonishment, O goddess: / 'Ah, what beauty! Ah, what fortitude! Ah, what radiance! Ah, what youth!'

Thinking thus, he said these words to the woman there: / 'Surrender yourself to me; I have taken no wife. / O goddess, from the sight of you I am afflicted by the arrow of desire.'

She said: 'I have no concern with the way of passion, O best of men. / Undertaking the vow of celibacy, I will achieve what I desire.

And you must by no means be angry in this matter.' / Hearing those words of hers, the sage Nārada, O beloved,

went to the divine city on the sea coast, ruled by Mahiṣa. / The sage was honored by that great-souled Mahiṣa.

Having inquired about his well-being, O goddess, and offered excellent guest-water, / [Mahiṣa] said with folded hands: 'What is the reason for your coming? / Speak of what you have determined; I will do it all, O Nārada.'

Then the sage spoke there to Mahiṣa, the lord of the Dānavas: / 'A jewel of a maiden has appeared in Jambudvīpa, O great Asura!

Such beauty has neither been seen nor heard of by me in heaven, on earth, or in Pātāla, / by which I have been subjugated by the arrows of desire.'

Hearing his speech, which greatly aroused desire, / he went to where that virtuous woman was residing in the Prabhāsa sacred field.

Surrounded by a vast army, he wooed her: / 'Become my wife, O timid one, and enjoy delightful pleasures! / This austerity, O fortunate one, is contrary to your youth.'

Hearing his speech, the fair-complexioned woman laughed. / As she laughed, O ruler of the gods, by the hundreds and thousands,

terrific women with weapons in hand suddenly [emerged] from her breath; / by them the army of the wicked Mahiṣa was destroyed.

When that army was being struck down, the best of Dānavas, / having flown into a rage, then rushed straight toward her.

Constantly shaking his sharp, terrifying horns, / the great Asura fought an immense battle with her.

He caught the goddess with his two horns; standing upon him / and trampling him with her feet, the bull of Daityas was slain with her pike.

When his head was severed with a sword, a man of that form came forth. / Though dreadful, that Daitya, struck down by the weapon of the goddess, went to heaven.

Then all the hosts of gods, Mahendra and the others, beholding Mahiṣa defeated, / praised the goddess with a satisfied mind.

The gods said: / 'Salutations to you, O goddess, highly fortunate, profound, of terrible aspect, / abiding in justice, of true tenets, three-eyed, facing all directions;

knowledge and ignorance, victorious, worthy of recitation, crusher of the demon Mahiṣa, / omnipresent, ruler of all knowledge, O goddess whose form is the universe;

free from grief, steadfast, O goddess whose long eyes are like lotus petals, / of pure being, established in vows, of fierce form, O night;

bestower of prosperity and perfection, O goddess who dances at the end of time, fond of firmness, / Śāṃkarī, Brāhmaṇī, Brāhmī, saluted by all the gods;

with a bell in hand, with a pike in hand, crusher of the great Mahiṣa, / of terrible form, odd-eyed, great illusion, immortal, Śivā;

omnipresent, bestower of all, O goddess whose origin consists of all beings, / mother of the sacred arts, the Purāṇas, and the darts, bearer of creatures;

O auspicious one among all divine secrets and among all that possesses being, / you alone are the refuge, O goddess, knowledge and ignorance, fortune and misfortune.'

Praised thus by the gods, O goddess, and bowed down to by the seers, / she said smilingly: 'Choose an excellent boon.'

The gods said: / 'O goddess, may the best of men who praise [you] here with this hymn / be constantly filled with desires and with showers of boons.

You must continually take up residence in this sacred field, O fair-smiling one.'

Saying 'So be it' to the gods, O fair-faced one, / the goddess dismissed the hosts of seers and remained delighting right there.

Whoever, O fair-faced one, intent on fasting on the ninth day of the bright fortnight of Āśvina, / beholds her with devotion, / his sin vanishes like darkness at sunrise.

The man who recites this hymn upon waking in the morning— / no fear arises for that man as long as he lives.

The eighth day of the bright fortnight of Āśvina that is conjoined with the asterism Mūla / is called the Mahānāmikā; those whose breaths depart on it, O auspicious one,

For them, dwelling in heaven is certain; those heroes are dear to the apsarases.

In all the Manvantaras and at the beginnings of Kalpas, O ruler of the gods, / this very order has been declared; listen now to its specific detail.

On the fifth day in the bright fortnight of Āśvina, which destroys sins, / one should worship at night the sword adorned with mantras.

There a pavilion of nine by seven cubits / should be erected in an area sloping towards the northeast and decorated with banners; / the twice-born should have it constructed according to rule in the presence of Yogeśvarī.

In the southeast he should make a sacrificial pit of just one cubit, very beautiful, / furnished with three stepped tiers, with a vulva shaped like an aśvattha leaf.

Then sweet milk-rice, consecrated with mantras prescribed by scripture, should be offered into the fire; / then, having bathed the sword with the liquid of the five nectars, / he should worship it with various flowers, preceded by mantras, through the best of the twice-born.

“Abhī, Viśasana, Khaḍga, Prāṇibhūta, Durāsada, / Agamya, Vijaya, and likewise Dharmādhāra— / these are your eight names spoken by the Creator himself.

Your asterism is Kṛttikā, your guru is Lord Maheśvara, / gold is your body, your creator is the god Janārdana, / your father is the grandfather [Brahmā]; O lord, protect [us] always by your own power.”

— Thus is the sword mantra. — / Having thus worshipped that sword according to rule through the best of brahmins, / one should carry it around the city at night accompanied by sounds of auspicious celebration,

accompanied by the entire army and by the foremost brahmins there. / Having thus performed the ritual, he should bring it back to Yogeśvarī; / uttering this mantra, he should dedicate the sword to her.

Having inscribed it with collyrium and smeared it with sandalwood paste, / he should offer a garland made of bilva leaves to that goddess:

“O Durgā, O goddess who removest distress in difficulties, O destroyer of all misfortune, / protect me in all perils; O Durgā, I have taken refuge in you.”

Having thus offered the guest-water, O ruler of the gods, he should keep vigil over the sword there, / worshipping it daily according to rule, precisely until the eighth day.

Having kept vigil that night, at dawn when the reddish glow rises, / he should cause buffaloes and sheep to be struck down with severed necks before her,

a hundred, or fifty, or half of half of that, according to his wish. / With jars filled with spirituous liquor, he should gratify the Supreme Goddess.

That should be given to the Kāpālikas and also to the male and female servant folk. / Then, in the afternoon of the ninth day,

the king himself, accompanied by his army, should parade Yogeśī mounted on a chariot through the realm, / with conches and kettle-drums sounding, and young students and bards reciting.

And he should offer an oblation to the spirits with this mantra, O lovely lady, / mixed with blood, mixed with water, with cooked food, and accompanied by perfumes, flowers, and unhusked barley-grains.

Three times with a trident he should cast the oblation into the cardinal and intermediate directions: / “May these gods—the Ādityas and the Vasus,

the Maruts, the two Aśvins, the Rudras, the birds, the serpents, and the planets—receive the oblation; / may they be propitious and satisfied, and may the spirits and ghosts bring happiness.”

The brahmins living in the sacred field who perform the festival journey in this manner— / neither enemies, nor fire, nor thieves, nor Vināyakas / cause obstacles for them, O ruler of the gods, by the grace of Yogeśvarī.

Happy, enjoyers of delights, and freed from all afflictions / are those men who are constantly devoted to Yogeśvarī.

Thus has this great festival of Yogeśvarī been related to you, / which destroys all inauspiciousness for those who recite or hear it.

Having worshipped on the ninth day Durgā, who makes the back of the buffalo demon pierced by her spear-tip her pedestal, whose staff-like arms are adorned with beautiful armlets brandishing a sword, attended by the five-faced [Śiva], mortals cross over extremely impassable wildernesses.

Thus ends the eighty-third chapter, entitled “Description of the Greatness of Yogeśvarī,” in the first [part], the Greatness of the Prabhāsa Sacred Field, in the seventh Prabhāsakhaṇḍa in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand verses.