Skandapurana 6.3.199

Chapter 199 / The venerable Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Immediately following that, O king, is the excellent Āśvina sacred ford, / the granter of desires among all sacred fords, bestowing perfections upon living beings.

At that sacred ford, the two gods the Aśvins, handsome and the best of physicians, / having performed extensive austerities, became sharers in the sacrificial offering.

Approved by all the gods, both sons of the sun, / the Nāsatyas, endowed with purity, best of beings who destroy all suffering.

Yudhiṣṭhira said: / By what cause the two Nāsatyas were born as the sons of the sun, father, / I wish to hear that ultimate conclusion, O twice-born one.

Mārkaṇḍeya said: / In the Bhāskara Purāṇa, father, this was heard by me in detail, / concerning the god of gods, the great-souled Mārtaṇḍa.

All that I shall tell to you in brief, O Bhārata, since you are endowed with devotion; / there is no doubt, [though I am] emaciated by old age.

Having seen the excessive brilliance of the sun, the queen goddess, O best of men, / practiced severe austerities in the wilderness of Meru as a mare.

Then, after the passage of some days, the blessed sun, / seeing [her], cast off his supreme, blazing splendor.

Overcome by love, having become a swift-paced horse, / [approached her who was] quivering with all her strength and running hither and thither.

Neighing with his voice, he approached for mating. / Then the goddess, turning to face him, stopped, swift of pace.

Somehow the excellent seed entered into her nose; / then, when the seed had entered the nose, an excellent embryo was formed.

Because the two sons were born [from the nose], O Pārtha, they are celebrated as the Nāsatyas, / well-proportioned, with symmetrical limbs, as if risen like a reflection from an image.

Surpassing all the gods, endowed with beauty and sovereignty, / both resorted to the bank of the Narmadā and went to Bhṛgukaccha; / having performed very difficult austerities, they attained supreme perfection.

Whoever bathes in that sacred ford and offers libations to the ancestors and gods, / is born handsome and fortunate, O Pārtha, wherever [he is reborn].

Thus ends the one hundred and ninety-ninth chapter, titled 'Description of the Māhātmya of the Āśvina Sacred Ford', in the Revā Section of the fifth Avantī Section, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa of eighty-one thousand verses.