Skandapurana 2.4.31

The Vālakhilyas said:

The bright ninth of Kārtika: on that day the Dvāpara Yuga began.

It is to be adopted when it falls in the forenoon or afternoon, respectively, for giving and fasting. .. 1 ..

Here, indeed, the demon named Kūṣmāṇḍaka was slain by Viṣṇu;

from his bodily hairs arose the creepers that produce the pumpkin gourd. .. 2 ..

Therefore, by donating a winter melon (kūṣmāṇḍa), one definitely attains the fruit.

On this very ninth [tithi], a person should celebrate the festival of Kṛṣṇa.

[He should perform] the marriage of Tulasī according to the rite prescribed in his own Vedic branch (śākhā).

The fruit of gifting a maiden (kanyādāna) accrues to him; of this there is no doubt.

Having reached the bright ninth day in Kārtika, with senses subdued,

having fashioned an auspicious Hari out of gold along with Tulasī,

the observer of the vow should worship them there for three days with devotion in accordance with the rules.

In this manner, by the prescribed rule, he should perform the nuptial rite.

Here, a period of three nights should be observed, following the ninth day onwards.

The ninth [tithi] that extends through midday, touched by the preceding one, is to be observed.

He who nurtures together and weds an āmalakī and a sacred fig (aśvattha) tree,

his religious merit is not destroyed even in hundreds of millions of kalpas.

Formerly, the youthful daughter of Kanaka, on the eleventh [day],

performed with devotion the rite of Tulasī's wedding in the evening.

By virtue of that, that fair-eyed maiden became freed from the blemish of widowhood.

Therefore, the rite born of Tulasī's marriage should be performed in the evening.

It should certainly be performed every year by Vaiṣṇavas.

I shall proclaim its rite, so that the ritual may be complete with all its limbs.

One should fashion an auspicious image of Viṣṇu made of a pala of gold,

or half of that, or half of half of that, according to one's capacity.

Having performed the consecration of the life-breath (prāṇapratiṣṭhā) in the two forms of Tulasī and Viṣṇu,

he should then awaken the God with the previously mentioned hymns and praises.

He should worship with sixteen services (upacāras) and with the Puruṣa[sūkta] mantras.

Then, having remembered the place and time, he should worship Gaṇeśa there.

Then, having had the benediction (puṇyāha) recited, he should perform the ancestral offering (nāndīśrāddha).

He should bring the image of Viṣṇu amidst the sounds of Vedic recitations, musical instruments, and the like.

It should be placed near Tulasī and screened by cloths.

"Come, O Blessed Lord, O Keśava, I shall worship [You].

I will give You Tulasī; be the bestower of all desires."

He should offer the guest-offering (arghya) three times, the water for washing feet (pādya), and the seat (viṣṭara).

Then, having spoken thrice, he should offer water for sipping (ācamanīya).

Then curd, clarified butter, and milk placed in a bell-metal vessel—

"Accept the madhuparka, O Vāsudeva; homage unto You!"

Having performed all the acts of smearing with turmeric and anointing,

Tulasī and Keśava should again be worshipped at the time of cow-dust (godhūli).

Placed separately facing each other, he should recite the auspicious verses.

When the sun is slightly visible, he should utter the declaration of intent (saṃkalpa),

having spoken his lineage, ancestral seers (pravaras), and the three paternal ancestors.

"O You without beginning, middle, or end! O Protector of the three worlds!

Accept this Tulasī according to the marriage rite, O Lord!

Sprung from the seed of Pārvatī, residing in the ashes of Vṛndā,

having no beginning, middle, or end, I give You Your beloved.

With pots of water and with services, she was reared by me like a daughter.

I give You Tulasī, who is dear to You; O Lord, please accept her."

Having thus given Tulasī, he should then worship them both afterwards.

At night, he should keep a vigil accompanied by the wedding celebration.

Then, at daybreak, he should worship Tulasī and Viṣṇu.

Having established the fire, with the twelve-syllable formula (mantra),

he should offer one hundred and eight oblations with milk-rice, ghee, honey, and sesame seeds.

Then, having offered the sviṣṭakṛt oblation, he should make the final oblation (pūrṇāhuti).

And having worshipped the preceptor (ācārya), he should complete the remainder of the fire offering.

Whatever observance was undertaken by anyone for the four months of the rainy season,

having related that to the twice-born, he should thus complete it and the other [observances].

"This vow was performed by me, O God, for Your pleasure, O Lord.

May whatever is deficient attain completeness through Your grace, O Janārdana!"

During the fourth quarter of Revatī joined with the twelfth [lunar day],

a person should not break his fast (pāraṇa); doing so, he would make his vow fruitless.

Then, whatever items were abstained from

during Cāturmāsya or in Ūrja (Kārtika), he should present to the brahmins.

Then he may eat all of whatever had been renounced while abiding in the vow.

In this rite, one should eat together with the married couple and with the brahmins.

Then, after eating, whatever leaves have fallen,

having eaten those [leaves] of Tulasī, one is personally freed from sins.

Likewise, a stalk of sugarcane, a myrobalan fruit, and a jujube fruit—

by eating [these] at the end of the meal, one's state of food-impurity is removed.

If among these three, not even one is eaten by someone,

that person is to be known as impure for a full year; of this there is no doubt.

Then in the evening, they should again be worshipped with lovely stalks of sugarcane,

namely, Tulasī and Vāsudeva; thereupon, one achieves one's purpose.

Then, having performed the formal dismissal and having given the inheritance and other gifts to Hari:

"Go to Vaikuṇṭha, O Lord, together with Tulasī, O Master!

Having accepted the worship performed by me, be ever pleased.

Depart, depart, O best of the gods, to your own abode, O Parameśvara!

Where the gods headed by Brahmā reside, go there, O Janārdana!"

Having thus dismissed the Lord of gods, one should present to the preceptor

the icon and everything else; [then] a person achieves their purpose.

Indeed, whoever performs the marriage of Tulasī every year,

being full of devotion, certainly becomes endowed with wealth and grain.

In this world and also in the next, he attains vast renown.

Thus ends the thirty-first chapter, named 'Description of the Rules for Kūṣmāṇḍanavamī and the Marriage of Tulasī,' in the Kārtikamāsamāhātmya of the second section, the Vaiṣṇavakhaṇḍa, in the Skandamahāpurāṇa of eighty-one thousand verses.