Skandapurana 1.4.9: adhyāyaḥ 11

The tortoise said: / Formerly I was a brahmin renowned as Śāṇḍilya. / In childhood, O king, while playing, I built

formerly in the rainy season a high temple of Śiva made of dust, / mostly composed of water-wet sand, adorned with high outer walls,

very charming with a pañcāyatana layout, O king, / possessing images of Vināyaka, Śivā, Sūrya, and Madhusūdana,

with a golden jar of yellow clay, decorated with garlands of banners, / set with a wooden archway, adorned with a swing,

resplendent with a firm, high-rising flight of steps, / full of all wonders, divine, [built by me] surrounded by my playmates.

Taking a Jāgeśvara liṅga, it was then installed there; / out of childishness [it was just] a piece of stone, cleansed by rainwater.

With baka flowers and others gathered from the fields, / with other tender blossoms grown on fence-vines,

and with ash gourds, colorful and accompanied by datura blossoms, / with mandāra flowers, bilva leaves, and fresh sprouts such as dūrvā grass,

a charming worship of Śambhu was performed by me in this way, O king. / Then a tāṇḍava dance was begun, disregarding proper ritual procedure;

and out of childishness I sang my own song in front of Śiva. / I did this only once in childhood, surrounded by a group of children.

Then I died and was born as a brahmin who remembered his past lives, O king. / In the city of Vaidiśa I performed the worship of Śiva especially.

Having undergone Śaiva initiation, favored by the Śaiva scriptures, / having installed a liṅga in a temple of Śiva, endowed with faith—

“Whoever builds an abode of Śiva shall dwell in heaven for ten million kalpas. / As many atoms as there are in an abode of Śiva, O king,

for that many years the builder remains in the home of Śiva”— / remembering these words of the Purāṇas, a stone temple of Śiva

I had made, charming, according to the rules of Viśvakarman. / “Made of clay, constructed of wood, of burnt brick, or of stone—

a temple that is built bestows tenfold fruit in succession.” / Sleeping on ashes, bathing at the three junctures of the day, eating food obtained by begging,

wearing matted hair, practicing austerity, and intent on worshipping Śiva— / while I was doing this, O king, death came again.

Born there remembering past lives, I was made in the third birth / an emperor, a ruler of the earth, in the supreme city of Pratiṣṭhāna,

known as Jayadatta, born in the solar dynasty. / Then I had many kinds of temples constructed, O king.

And in that birth, intent on worshipping Śambhu, / then [offerings] were designated beginning with baka flowers,

with flowers fashioned of gold, silver, and jewels, O king. / I performed distributions of food and the like in such manner, O best of kings.

I performed the worship of Śiva’s liṅgas solely with flowers. / Then the blessed Śambhu, pleased, granted me a boon:

freedom from old age and death, O king, while invested with that very body. / Then, having obtained such an extraordinary boon,

I roamed this earth like an elephant blind with rut. / Abandoning devotion to Śiva, then, I as a king was afflicted by passion,

and began to violate women who were the wives of others. / The primary cause of the destruction of life, austerity, renown, splendor, fame, and fortune

is the violation of another’s wife. / Though having ears, he becomes deaf; though seeing, blind; though speaking, mute;

unconscious though conscious; a fool though learned indeed— / such a man becomes in merely a moment, O ruler of the earth,

as soon as he comes into the range of the eyes of fawn-eyed women. / For the dead, dwelling in hell; and for the living, fear of the Lord:

thus violating another’s wife destroys both worlds. / Convinced with certainty, “I am free from old age and death,”

casting aside fear of this world and the next, I, from that [moment] on, / began to violate other men’s wives, O king.

Then Yama, realizing that I had transgressed all bounds / because of the boon granted by Īśa, approached his presence; / and he reported to Śambhu my transgression of dharma:

Yama said: / “Because he is protected by your majesty, I am not able

to restrain this sinner, O Lord! Appoint another in my office. / For you have declared that chaste wives are the foundation of the world, O Īśa;

and cows, brahmins knowledgeable in the Vedas, the ungreedy, the generous, / and those devoted to truth—among these, O Lord, a chaste wife is foremost.

They have been violated by him; my authority over dharma has been overthrown / by him, arrogant from your boon, defying me—

by Jayadatta, O Lord of gods, who dwells in Pratiṣṭhāna!” / Hearing this speech of Dharma, the Blessed Lord was angered; / summoning me as I trembled with folded hands, he cursed me:

Īśvara said: / “Since, O evil-doer, chaste wives were violated by you,

afflicted by desire, therefore, cursed by me, become a tortoise instantly!” / Then, bowing down, the remover of the torment of the curse was implored by me;

he said: “In the sixtieth kalpa you will be freed from the curse and will become a gaṇa / of mine.” Having spoken thus, Śiva vanished.

I then became a tortoise ten yojanas in extent. / I was brought into the ocean water by you for accomplishing the sacrifice,

by you who were formerly a zealous sacrificer; and remembering that, I fear you. / I was burned by you upon my back; see these wounds of mine!

Many altars were built according to the rules of the Kalpasūtras / upon my back by you at that time, O Indradyumna.

Further, heated by the sacrifices, O lord of the earth, / the earth oozed the essence of all sacred fords; that became the river Mahī.

And by mere ritual ablution in it, one is freed from all sins. / Then, when a certain periodic cosmic dissolution arrived,

this [lake] Mānasa, a hundred yojanas wide, was floating, O king. / In the measure of fifty-six cosmic ages of mine formerly, O king,

four have elapsed here; in the remainder liberation will occur after that. / Thus this lifespan is long, and thus from a curse came the condition of a tortoise.

I was an Īśvara [himself] who injured the duty of a virtuous wife, O king. / Speak: what may be done even for you, an enemy who has come to my house?

My back was burned for a long time formerly by you with fire, O king; / I see it even today as if blazing by [you] the sacrificial performer.

Why has this aerial chariot, having arrived together with a divine messenger, been rejected by you? / Enjoy the pleasures earned by yourself!

Indradyumna said: / By that four-faced [Brahmā] himself I was banished from heaven. / Being ashamed, I will not go [back] to that which is blemished by a fall [from heaven] and other [evils].

Therefore, having embraced discrimination and detachment, which destroy ignorance and sin, / I will strive for liberation, having attained knowledge.

Since you now show hospitality to me who have come to your house, / therefore instruct me, so that some guru may take me across the shoreless [ocean].

The tortoise said: / There is a great sage named Lomaśa whose lifespan is longer even than mine. / Formerly in Kalāpagrāma he was seen by me somewhere, O king.

Indradyumna said: / Therefore come, let us go together to him alone; / the wise proclaim association with the virtuous to be purer even than a sacred ford.

Having thus heard the speech of the king, then all six of them, / placing that foremost of sages swiftly in mind, went joyfully to that chief of the twice-born, / desiring to know the cause of his very long life.

Thus ends the eleventh chapter, named "The Story of the Tortoise in the Manifestation of the Mahī," in the Kaumārikākhaṇḍa of the first [section], the Māheśvarakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a compendium of eighty-one thousand [verses].