Skandapurana 14.11

Pulastya said: / Then, O best of kings, one should go to the supreme god Koṭīśvara, / seeing whom a human being would properly attain supreme perfection. / 1

Hear what wonder occurred there of old, O lord of the earth: / the foremost sages of the southern region, numbering one crore, / 2

all came easily to Arbuda out of rivalry with one another, / saying, 'I shall see the Lord of the Mountain first! I first!' / 3

'The brahmin who arrives later shall become a dog; / he shall become a sinner, devoid of devotion and lacking faith.' / 4

Rivaling thus with one another, they came easily to Arbuda. / Then all those self-controlled ones, properly devoted to their vows, / 5

all tranquil ascetics skilled in the knowledge of the Vedas— / knowing their desire fully, the destroyer of Kāma, / 6

filled with supreme compassion because of their devotion, / became present in that place having made a crore of his own liṅgas. / 7

At that very same moment Maheśvara was seen by all, / individually by the sages numbering one crore, O best of kings. / 8

Then all those sages, having seen Maheśvara simultaneously, / their eyes wide with wonder, said, 'Excellent! Excellent!' / 9

Endowed with devotion, all the twice-born praised him with Vedic hymns. / Then Śambhu, pleased with them, spoke these words: / 7.3.11.10

The venerable Mahādeva said: / 'I am pleased, O all you sages, by your supreme faith indeed; / choose a boon quickly, and each of you individually.' / 11

The seers said: / 'This very boon resides in the hearts of all of us: / from this simultaneous sight, O god, let the highest fruit arise.' / 12

The venerable Mahādeva said: / 'Sight of me cannot be in vain, especially for a brahmin; / for those who have sight of me, there shall be the fruit born of the sacred ford.' / 13

The sages said: / 'If a boon must certainly be granted to us, O Maheśvara, / let one single liṅga consisting of a crore be made, O bull-bannered lord, / 14

upon seeing which the fruit born of a crore of liṅgas arises for men; / grant us this boon, O bull-bannered lord!' / 15

Pulastya said: / As the sages of purified souls were praying thus, / having burst through the excellent mountain, a liṅga suddenly arose. / 16

At that very moment, an unembodied voice spoke / with supreme compassion to all those seers, O lord of the earth:

The voice said: / "My liṅga shall become known in the world by the name Koṭīśvara; / and whoever worships it on the fourteenth day of the dark fortnight of Māgha,

all the fruit for him, O brahmins, shall be ten-million-fold. / Moreover, whatever man from the south performs a śrāddha here,

his fruit shall be ten-million-fold, equal to a śrāddha at Gayā. / Therefore, my liṅga should be especially worshipped by human beings."

Pulastya said: / Having spoken thus, that voice fell silent, O lord of the earth. / Thereupon, all those sages, with perfumes, incense, and unguents,

worshipped that liṅga with supreme faith, O king. / Having worshipped it, they all attained perfection through the grace of the liṅga.

Thus ends the eleventh chapter, titled 'Description of the Māhātmya of Koṭīśvara', in the Arbuda section, the third [part] of the Prabhāsa section, in the Mahāpurāṇa of Śrī Skanda, in the collection of eighty-one thousand [verses].