Skandapurana 14.4

Sūta said: / Having established his hermitage there, the venerable sage Vasiṣṭha / performed extremely severe austerity for the sake of Śambhu's dwelling there.

The sage subsisted fully on a diet of fruit; / afterwards, he spent two hundred [years] eating fallen leaves.

He subsisted on water for five hundred years; / then for a thousand years he lived on air.

Practicing the five fires in summer, dwelling in water in winter, / and staying in the open air during the rains, a thousand [years] then passed.

Then Mahādeva, pleased with that great-souled seer, / split open that mountain, and a liṅga immediately arose before him. / Seeing it, filled with wonder, the sage uttered a hymn of praise:

"Obeisance to Śiva, the pure, the omnipresent, and the immortal! / Obeisance to you who have matted hair; obeisance to him of threefold form!

Homage to the gross, to the subtle, to the all-pervading, to the great Self! / Homage to you who hold a quiver; homage, homage to the three-eyed one! 7

Homage to the bearer of the crescent moon; homage to him whose garment is space! / Homage to you with Pināka in hand; homage, homage to the eight-formed one! 8

Homage to you whose form is knowledge; homage to you who are accessible through knowledge! / Homage to you whose body is knowledge, and who are composed of all knowledge! 9

Homage to you, lord of Kāśī; homage, homage to the mountain-dweller! / Homage to you, Mahādeva, whose form is the cause of the universe! 10

O beloved of Gaurī, homage to you; homage to you whose essence is Śiva! / Homage, homage to the three-eyed one, who has the nature of Brahmā and Viṣṇu! 11

Homage to you, the universal-formed, the pure, the great Self! / Homage to you whose nature is the universe, and who are composed of all the gods! 12

Sūta said: / Just at that time, an incorporeal voice spoke: / “I am well pleased with you; may you have good fortune! Choose a boon, O you of noble vows!” 13

Having said this, a liṅga burst through the mountain and arose before him. 14

Vasiṣṭha said: / “May your presence always remain in this liṅga, O Śaṃkara! / I previously made a promise here to the great-souled mountain. / Make my word true, if you are pleased, O Śaṃkara!” 15

The Holy Lord said: / “From this day forth, my presence shall be in this liṅga. / By your word, O best of brahmins, everything shall come true. 16

Whatever mortal praises me with devotion using this hymn / on the fourteenth day of the dark fortnight in Āśvina, O best of sages— 17

and sent by Śakra for my pleasure, O best of sages, / the river famed as Mandākinī, which purifies the three worlds, 18

has a pool that remains constantly on the northern side of the god. / Having bathed in it, O best of sages, whoever beholds my liṅga / goes to the supreme abode, free from old age and death. 19

Because my liṅga has burst forth through the mountain (acala), / it shall attain fame in the world by the very name ‘Acaleśvara’. 20

By virtue of the māhātmya of this liṅga, it shall never move. / By every means, this liṅga of mine will not be moved even at the end of dissolution.” 21

Sūta said: / Having spoken this word, Maheśvara fell silent. / Vasiṣṭha too, his mind delighted, and Gautama and the other lords of sages, 22

as well as Śakra and the other gods, the sacred fords, and the temples, / the brahmin seer brought there to the best of mountains by his austerity. 23

Pleased by that, the best of gods then took up residence there. 24

Thus ends the fourth chapter, titled ‘Description of the Origin of Acaleśvara,’ in the Arbuda Section, the third [section] of the Prabhāsa Section, in the seventh part of the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand [verses]. 4