Skandapurana 1.4.7: adhyāyaḥ 9

The owl said: / “Thus all this has been told—my past birth, / my nature, and the cause of my lifespan and my owlhood.”

When he, whose name was Purūhūta, paused after speaking thus, / the crane Nāḍījaṅgha, sorrowful, spoke these words to his friend.

Nāḍījaṅgha said: / “The matter for which we came has not succeeded, O noble-minded one. / Therefore death has truly arrived for all three of us.

If Indradyumna is not recognized, this Bhadraka wishes to die; / after him, his friend Mārkaṇḍa; and plainly, I too after him.

When a friend’s task is unfulfilled, he who watches his friend die /—fie upon the loveless life of that wicked soul!

Therefore, O twice-born, I shall follow these two who are dying. / I take leave of you; here is my homage and this final embrace.

Having failed to fulfill what was promised to a friend who has arrived, / how is it that those who are wretchedly craving life feel no shame?

Therefore, without doubt, I will enter the fire along with these two. / Leave has now been asked of you; out of affection, offer a handful of water for me.”

When Nāḍījaṅgha had spoken thus with choked voice / and tearful eyes, the owl composed himself and spoke words resembling nectar.

The owl said: / “While I, your friend, am alive, you would go to death? / From this day forward, then, who will find a place in my heart?

There is a great remedy in this matter: on Mount Gandhamādana / lives a friend longer-lived than I, a vulture, a friend dear as life.

He will recognize King Indradyumna whom you desire.” / Having spoken thus, the owl stood before the king.

Mārkaṇḍeya and the crane went to the Gandhamādana mountain. / Seeing his friend coming and standing before him, 9.13

that vulture, delighted, came forth from his nest to meet him. / Once courteous greetings had been exchanged with welcome, a seat, and food, 9.14

the king of vultures then asked the owl about his business. / And he said: “This crane is my friend, and a sage is his; 9.15

this [king] is a third friend, of the sage, and this is the purpose at hand: / if Indradyumna is recognized, he will live, not otherwise. 9.16

Evidently he will enter the fire, and after him, we too. / He was restrained by me, knowing you to be ancient in age. 9.17

If you know him, tell it, and give life to the four [of us]! / Protect us, and attain great renown and the destruction of all sins!” 9.18

The vulture said: / “Fifty-six kalpas have passed since I was born, O owl! / King Indradyumna has neither been seen nor heard of by us.” 9.19

Hearing this, Indradyumna was filled with astonishment and grew sorrowful. / He asked the bird the reason for his extraordinarily long life. 9.20

The vulture said: / “Listen, noble one! Long ago I was born as a restless monkey. / Once, in due course, the spring season arrived. 9.21

There, before the God of Gods in a Śiva shrine in the midst of the forest, / before Bhavodbhava named the Lord of Yoga of the World, 9.22

on the fourteenth day, under the constellation Hasta, at the conjunction named Harṣaṇa, / in the bright half of Caitra, there was the festival of Damanaka. 9.23

When the liṅga was placed upon a golden swing by the people, / I climbed onto the swing at night and rocked it 9.24

again and again for a long time, out of natural monkey restlessness. / Then at dawn, the people came to perform worship; 9.25

seeing the monkey mounted on the swing, they beat me with clubs. / Still seated on the swing, I died right in the temple of Śiva, 9.26

struck by their many very hard blows, unbearable as thunderbolts. / By the māhātmya of swinging Śiva, I was born in the palace of a king. 9.27

I was known as Kuśadhvaja, the son of the king of Kāśī. / Remembering my past birth, having attained sovereign power in the kingdom in due course, 9.28

I caused the Damanaka festival to be performed on earth in Caitra. / Just as a man swings Śiva sitting on a swing, 9.29

so does evil depart, and merit arrives, noble one! / Having received the initiation of Śiva and being purified by all the rites of passage, 9.30

I was freed from the bonds of individual souls by the Śaiva masters according to their Āgama. / Having received all rites up to the final emancipating initiation, 9.31

with an inward-turned mind I worshipped the Lord of the Gods, the husband of Umā, / the cause of severing all afflictions, the guru of the worlds. 9.32

By restraining the fluctuations of the mind through dispassion and practice, / chanting the Udgītha, meditating upon its meaning, and tasting the eighth aesthetic sentiment, 9.33

Hara, knowing that I was unaffected by obstacles through firm devotion and steadfast practice, / was pleased and said: 9.34

Īśvara said: / ‘Kuśadhvaja, I am pleased today; choose a boon of your desire! / For there is no such practice performed by anyone else on the earth’s surface.’ 9.35

Hearing this, Śambhu was addressed by me: ‘May I become your attendant / with this very body!’ The Lord said to me, ‘So be it!’ 9.36

Then, bringing me to Kailāsa, he assigned me an aerial chariot / made entirely of jewels, divine, and filled with heavenly wonders. 9.37

Mounted on it, I roamed freely at will, renowned. / Then, when some time had passed, right on this mountain, 9.38

standing at the window in spring, I saw a sage’s daughter / while the southern wind blew, and I was inflamed with the fire of love: 9.39

the daughter of Agniveśya, noble one, naked in the water, / her youth blossoming, slender, thin in the waist, with eyes like a deer’s, 9.40

with broad and expansive hips, thighs like plantain trunks, firm breasts, / her loveliness sprouting as if through sprinkling of water before me, 9.41

her face like an open lotus, of a form most worthy of description, / to be praised even by the wise according to their intelligence and reality. 9.42

With rising casts of her sidelong glances, as if with showers of arrows, / Love himself, taking possession of her limbs, struck me fiercely. 9.43

As she was playing freely, surrounded by her companions, / I descended from the aerial chariot, tormented by love, and seized her. 9.44

Captured by me, placed on the aerial chariot, she let out a long, loud cry / and wept bitterly, crying ‘Father!’, noble one! 9.45

Then her distressed friends ran to the sage and said: / ‘Your daughter is being carried off by some celestial being! 9.46

Arise from all sides, Lord, and protect her as she weeps!’ / Hearing their words, the sage Agniveśya, a storehouse of austerity, 9.47

hastened towards her in the sky; / saying to me, ‘Halt, halt!’, he paralyzed my movement by his austerity. 9.48

Then, enraged, the sage spoke words very hard to bear: / Agniveśya said: / ‘Because my daughter has been seized by you like a piece of flesh 9.49

by a vulture just now in the sky, therefore become a vulture at once! / This daughter of mine, a young ascetic girl, was unwilling, 9.50

yet she was carried off by you; now reap the fruit of this, evil-minded one!’ / Hearing this, seized with fear and with downcast face from shame, 9.51

I fell down grasping the sage’s feet, weeping profusely then: / ‘I did not carry her off knowingly, nor has she been violated by me yet. 9.42

Be gracious, turn back your curse, O treasure of austerity! / Ascetics rich in tapas are compassionate by nature toward those who bow down; 9.53

good people are so; therefore, let me not become a vulture, be gracious to me!’ / When he was thus supplicated and bowed to by me who had surrendered, that great sage, 9.54

placated, said: ‘My word can never be false. / However, when you give help in recognizing King Indradyumna, 9.55

at that time you will attain liberation from the curse.’ 9.56

Having said this, that sage departed taking his daughter, / her chastity unbroken, to his hermitage; and I then became a vulture.” 9.57

Thus, at that time, during the damanaka festival of Īśvara, my descent took place in the royal palace through swinging, / and my status as Śambhu's attendant came to be; likewise, by the curse of Agniveśya, I became a vulture here, O noble one. This has been recounted to you.

Thus ends the ninth chapter, named 'The Māhātmya of the Damanaka Plant' in the Manifestation of the Earth, in the Kaumārikākhaṇḍa of the first section, the Māheśvarakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skandapurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.