Skandapurana 14.10

Yayāti said: / O brahmin, Kedāra is heard to be on the Himālaya mountain. / From there the Gaṅgā issued forth and entered the eastern ocean.

Likewise, goddess Sarasvatī came forth from a mango tree, / and reached the western ocean, carrying the submarine fire.

How did Kedāra arrive here? There is wonder in this. / Explain all this to me in full, O brahmin; it is wondrous to me.

Pulastya said: / This is true, O great king, what you ask us here. / Listen with attention to how it happened, just as it has been heard.

Formerly the gods, Śakra and others, along with me, O best of kings, / the sacred fords such as the Gaṅgā, and the gods such as Kedāra,

went, O lord of kings, all the great seers, unto Brahmā. / There they all engaged in various discourses on dharma, each separately.

And in that assembly of the gods, O king, all the sacred fords, / the sacred fields, the forests, and the groves were present.

Then, in the course of the conversation, Indra spoke to the four-faced one. / Filled with curiosity, O best of kings, he asked:

Indra said: / O Lord, I wish to hear now the meritorious greatness / and the measure of each of all [the ages], beginning with Kṛta.

Brahmā said: / Seventeen hundred thousand, O lord of the gods, / together with twenty-eight thousand, is declared to be the measure of the Kṛta age.

The age named Tretā is declared to be twelve hundred thousand, / and measured with ninety-six thousand more.

Eight hundred thousand with sixty-four thousand is proclaimed; / that, O god, is proclaimed as the age named Dvāpara.

And Kali is renowned as four hundred thousand / and thirty-two thousand, O best of gods. Thus is the measure of the ages declared.

In Kṛta, dharma has four legs, and Janārdana is white in color. / In that [age] there is never any famine, nor disease anywhere.

Dharma is practiced then, and there is no untimely death for men; / grain grows without the plow, and cows yield abundant milk.

Lust, anger, fear, greed, envy, and malice, / O thousand-eyed one, never exist in that age.

Then, in the Tretā age, dharma came to have three legs; / men in it are long-lived, and Janārdana is red in color.

In it, sacrifices proceed, granting what is desired to living beings, / and no inclination toward lust or the like arises in men.

Through austerity, celibacy, ritual ablutions, varied gifts, / and likewise through sacrifices, muttering of mantras, and oblations, men conduct their lives there.

Then the third age is called Dvāpara; / dharma has become two-legged, and Janārdana is yellow in color.

Muttering of mantras, sacrifices, and austerities proceed with the desire for fruits; / the world is imbued with truth and falsehood in Dvāpara, O best of gods.

There kings fought with one another on the surface of the earth; / thoroughly purified, they went to heaven after worshipping Janārdana with sacrifices.

Then the dreadful fourth age, Kali, sets in; / dharma becomes one-legged, terrified in daily worship.

Viṣṇu becomes black in color, and an abundance of sin prevails: / delusion and envy, and lust, anger, and fear.

Kings are greedy for wealth, filled with hundreds of forms of greed and delusion; / men there have short lives, and the earth has little grain.

Cows have little milk, and the twice-born are devoid of truth; / there people are deceitful, devoted to [the pleasures of] the tongue and genitals.

In the Kali age they will be devoid of truth and sinful; / there, in their sixteenth year, men will have gray hair,

and women in their twelfth year will bear pregnancies. / By degrees there will be confusion of the classes, O lord of the gods.

All classes and stages of life will become uniform in conduct, / and sacrifices as well as the eternal duty of family lineages will perish.

The sacred fords there, touched on all sides by foreigners, will become useless, / O best of the gods, and devoid of efficacy.

Having heard this speech of Brahmā, whose birth is unmanifest, / the sacred fords present there said this to Brahmā:

The sacred fords said: / How shall we fare when the dreadful Kali arrives? / Tell us of a place, O lord of gods, where we must always remain.

Brahmā said: / Arbuda is the best of mountains; Kali is not present there. / Therefore, you must go there together with the sacred shrines.

Even after committing great sin, he who gazes upon Arbuda, / freed from the evils of Kali, will go to the supreme state.

Pulastya said: / Having spoken thus, the four-faced one went to Brahmā's world, O king; / then all the sacred fords departed in the Kali age.

Out of fear of Kali they settled on earth, on Arbuda, the king of mountains: / the Gaṅgā, the Sarasvatī, the Yamunā, and the Puṣkaras,

Kurukṣetra, Prabhāsa, and likewise Brahmāvarta, / and all the three and a half crores of sacred fords that exist on the face of the earth.

And their dwelling was established on the mountain named Arbuda; / thus both Gaṅgā and Sarasvatī arrived there. / 38

There tranquil men properly attain supreme nirvāṇa; / having performed a śrāddha, O great king, their ancestors go to heaven. / 39

Hear what wonder occurred there of old, O highly intelligent one: / a seer named Maṅkaṇaka was residing on the bank of the Sarasvatī. / 7.3.10.40

Endowed with great virtue, free from desire and anger, he performed tapas. / As he was continuing thus, he happened once to sneeze. / 41

Bile fell out there, and it appeared full of blood. / Seeing that, the seer Maṅkaṇa became exceedingly delighted. / 42

Thinking, 'I have attained perfection,' he then danced. / As he was doing so, the world of the stationary and the moving / 43

became agitated there, and even the oceans were churned; / abandoning their household duties, everyone fell into astonishment. / 44

As he danced in this way, O best of kings, all the worlds / danced, O foremost of monarchs, through the power of that noble sage. / 45

Then all the hosts of gods approached the destroyer of Kāma: / 'O Maheśvara, act so that he does not dance.' / 46

Then Śambhu in the form of a brahmin said to that best of the twice-born: / 'O brahmin, you have performed tapas; why do you dance now?' / 47

Maṅkaṇa said: / 'Do you not see, O brahmin, that blood and bile have come forth from me? / It has happened! I have attained perfection, since blood and bile are mine!' / 48

'For this reason, O twice-born, I dance out of joy.' / When addressed thus by him, the god of gods, Maheśvara, / 49

struck his own thumb with his forefinger, O best of kings; / then from his thumb emerged ash, pale white like a lotus stalk. / 7.3.10.50

Then he said to Maṅkaṇaka: 'Look, O vipra, from my hand / pure white ash has emerged; behold my marvel, O twice-born!' / 51

Pulastya said: / Astonished at seeing that, and realizing that he was the bull-bannered lord, / the vipra dropped to the ground on his knees and spoke these words: / 52

Maṅkaṇa said: / 'Surely you are Mahādeva seen in person; be pleased with me! / I have truly recognized you; this is firmly in my heart. / 53

This power which you have shown me belongs to no other; / deliver me, O lord of gods, showing mercy, O Maheśvara!' / 54

The venerable Mahādeva said: / 'I am properly recognized by you, O foremost among vipras; there is no doubt in this. / Choose a boon, may good befall you, since you performed an excess of dancing.' / 55

Maṅkaṇa said: / 'For those who take a ritual ablution here in the Sarasvatī with composed minds, / may the fruit of the Rājasūya and Aśvamedha sacrifices be theirs by your grace.' / 56

The venerable Mahādeva said: / 'Those who will take a ritual ablution here in the Sarasvatī with composed minds / shall go to the supreme abode, free from old age and death. / 57

Here at the confluence of Gaṅgā and Sarasvatī, renowned in the world, / if they perform a śrāddha, O best of the twice-born, they shall attain the supreme state. / 58

Those who give gold here to an excellent twice-born according to their capacity, / freed from all sins, shall attain the supreme state.' / 59

Having spoken thus, O king, the god of gods, Maheśvara, vanished. / 7.3.10.60

Thus ends the tenth chapter, titled 'Description of the Arrival of All Sacred Fords on Mount Arbuda through the Influence of the Kaliyuga,' in the third Arbuda Section of the seventh Prabhāsa Section, in the venerable Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand [verses]. / 10