Skandapurana 1.4.58: adhyāyaḥ 60

Sūta said:

Then, outside Prāgjyotiṣa, he saw a golden palace

situated in a great grove, having a thousand storeys,

filled with the sounds of flutes, vīṇās, and mṛdaṅgas,

crowded with handmaidens numbering ten thousand,

and crowded with messengers of Bhagadatta arriving and departing,

asking, ‘What does [our] sister desire?’

Approaching that palace, which was like a peak of Mount Meru, the son of Hiḍimbā

beheld a female companion, Karṇaprāvaraṇā, standing at the door.

The hero spoke gracefully to her: ‘O auspicious lady, where is that daughter of Mura?

As a suitor, a guest arrived from a distant land, I wish to see [her].’

Karṇaprāvaraṇā said:

‘What purpose do you have, O mighty-armed one, with that Maurvī?

O lover, crores of suitors have been slain by her before!

Having seen your form, with a pot-like laugh and hair ever erect,

I bow down at your feet, O hero, and stand obedient to your command.

Therefore, rejoice with me, and enjoy pleasures, O lover!

I shall also give a trio of beloved women to your three attendants.’

Ghaṭotkaca said:

‘O auspicious and beautiful one, the rumour spoken by you is fitting for yourself;

nonetheless, this speech of yours does not enter my heart.

For desire is perverse, O blessed lady, towards whatever it fastens upon;

and it does not attach here [to you], so what can we do?

Today your mistress, being seen, will either be won and dally with me,

or, conquered by her, I shall go the way of the previous suitors.

Therefore, O Karṇaprāvaraṇā, let it be announced immediately!’

so that, by a mere sight, they indeed honour the guest.”

Hearing these words of Bhīma's son, the female demon, stumbling,

spoke thus to Maurvī, who was sitting atop the palace:

“O queen, a certain glorious youth, of immeasurable splendour in the three worlds,

a guest of love, stands at your door; command what is next.”

Kāmakaṭaṅkaṭā said:

“Let him be released at once! Why do you delay?

Perhaps, by divine conjunction, my condition may be fulfilled.”

Upon these spoken words, the maid approached and said to Ghaṭotkaca:

“Go quickly, O lover, into her presence—and that of death!”

Thus addressed, laughing and leaving his followers there,

Bhīma's son entered the palace like a lion entering a cave of Meru.

Seeing flocks of parrots and crowds of pigeons,

and impassioned mainas, he also saw the maidservants,

and her, who by her beauty and youth could create delight even in Rati,

comfortably seated on a swing, adorned with all ornaments.

Beholding her standing like lightning, Bhīma's son thought:

“Ah, she was properly designated for me by my father Kṛṣṇa!

It is fitting that hosts of lovers have perished before on her account.

If it leads to bodily destruction, lovers are destroyed;

what reckoning is there of those destroyed for the sake of lovely women?”

Thinking thus in many ways, the impassioned son of Bhīma spoke:

“O cruel woman with a heart of stone, I have arrived as your guest.

Render that appropriate honour due to good men, whatever lies in your heart.”

Hearing these words of Hiḍimbā's son, Kāmakaṭaṅkaṭā

was astonished by his beauty and blamed her own foolishness:

“Fie upon me, that such a condition was made by me before!

If it had not been made in the past, he would have been my husband.”

Thinking thus, she spoke these words to Bhīma's son:

“You have come in vain, gentle sir; go back alive and happy!

Yet if you desire me, then narrate a tale at once.

If, having told a tale, you throw me into doubt,

then I shall become subject to your will; otherwise, slain by me, you shall sleep.”

Sūta said:

Having looked with the corner of his eye at her who had spoken thus,

and remembering Kṛṣṇa, the guru of the moving and unmoving, he began a tale:

“A certain youth with uncontrolled senses had a wife;

a daughter was born to him, and his wife died.

Then he protected and nourished the little girl, his daughter.

When she reached youth, with her auspicious limbs developed,

with radiant breasts and slender waist, and a radiant lotus-face,

then his mind, agitated by passion, abandoned restraint.

The wicked-minded man embraced that daughter and said:

‘You are the daughter of a neighbour, brought here and reared by me

for a long time to be my wife; accomplish that purpose, beloved!’

Thus addressed, she believed those words to be true;

she received him as a husband, and he received her as a wife.

Then a daughter was born to her from that ass of lust.

Tell me: is she his granddaughter or his daughter?

Answer this question of mine quickly, if you have the power.”

Sūta said:

Having heard this question, she thought deeply in her heart;

she saw no resolution to this question whatsoever.

Then, defeated by the question, she resorted to her own power:

she struck the golden rope of the swing with both hands;

then demons rushed out by the millions, exceedingly dreadful,

along with lions, tigers, boars, buffaloes, leopards, and deer.

Seeing them run innumerably in rage to devour him,

Bhīma's son laughed and snapped the nails of his little finger and thumb;

then double the number of rākṣasas and beasts sprang forth there.

By them, all those created by Maurvī were devoured in an instant.

And when her own power was conquered, she then took up the power of strength.

Rising swiftly from the swing, she wished to seize a sword.

And as she was rising up, Bhīma's son pursued her as if with speed,

and seizing her by the hair with his left hand, cast her down onto the ground.

Then, placing his left foot upon her neck and taking a knife

with his right hand, he wished to cut off her nose.

Then Maurvī, trembling, spoke softly to Ghaṭotkaca:

"By question, by power, and by strength, O lord, I have been conquered by you in three ways; homage to you.

Therefore release me; I am your servant. Command me, and I shall do that."

Ghaṭotkaca said:

"If so, then you are released; show again whatever strength [you have]."

Having spoken thus, he released her; and released, she bowed and said:

"I know you, O mighty-armed hero, best of the powerful,

master of all rākṣasas, of immeasurable prowess in the three worlds.

For you are the lord of the guhyakas, remembered as Kālanābha,

born on earth as the master of sixty crores for the protection of yakṣas and rākṣasas.

Thus Kāmākhyā spoke to me; I remember all that.

This house, along with my followers, is given by me, myself, to you.

Command me, O lord of my life; what order of yours shall I carry out?"

Ghaṭotkaca said:

"A secret marriage is not fitting in any way

for one whose parents and kin are present, O Morvī.

Therefore carry me quickly now to Śakraprastha, O fair one.

This is the custom of our family, that a wife should carry her husband.

Having obtained permission there, I shall marry you."

Maurvī then informed the lord Bhagadatta;

and taking much wealth, she then took leave of her brother.

Then, having mounted Ghaṭotkaca upon her back, the blameless woman,

accompanied by various kinds of wealth, traveled to Śakraprastha.

Then he was welcomed by Vāsudeva and the Pāṇḍavas;

at an auspicious moment, Bhīma's son took her hand,

according to the best prescribed rites of the Kurus and the rākṣasas.

Having married her, he gratified the Pāṇḍavas with that wealth.

Both Kuntī and Draupadī rejoiced exceedingly;

gratified with wealth, they performed auspicious rites for him and Maurvī.

Then, when the marriage was completed, having honored Ghaṭotkaca

together with his wife, the king directed him to his own kingdom.

Taking the command upon their heads along with Maurvī, the son of Hiḍimbā, accompanied by his wife,

went to his own auspicious kingdom in the forest of Hiḍimba.

Then, celebrated by the rākṣasa women with bronze vessels of heroes,

he rejoiced with a great festival in his own kingdom.

Then, in wondrous forests and on the sandbanks of rivers,

Bhīma's son sported with her like Rāvaṇa with Mandodarī.

As he was thus sporting, an embryo was conceived in her by that one of great splendor,

by that son of Hiḍimbā, tiger among rākṣasas, having the luster of the morning sun.

As soon as he was born, he grew, and in an instant he reached youth.

Resembling a mass of blue clouds, with a face like a jar and large eyes,

with hair standing erect and body hair pointing upward, he bowed to his parents and said:

"I bow to both of you, my parents and gurus of my birth.

Having done what is pleasing to you both, may I indeed always be free from debt.

I desire a name for myself given by you both,

and after this, whatever is the highest good that grants advancement [to be done]."

Then Bhīma's son embraced his son and spoke these words:

"Because your hair resembles that of a barbarian, you shall have the name Barbarīka;

you shall be, O mighty-armed one, an enhancer of the family's joy.

And what is your highest and firm good is praised in many ways by eminent brahmins;

having gone to the city of Dvārakā, we two shall ask Vāsudeva, the lord of the Yadu lineage, about that."

Thus ends the sixtieth chapter, named 'The Description of the Birth of Barbarīka', in the Kaumārikākhaṇḍa of the first [section], the Māheśvarakhaṇḍa, in the Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.