Skandapurana 16.103

Īśvara said: / Then, O lady of fair hips, one should go to the excellent Kapāleśvara, / in the northern quarter from her, worshipped by gods and gandharvas.

Long ago, while the sacrifice of the wise king Dakṣa was underway, / while the brahmins were seated and offerings were being poured into the fire,

Śaṃkara came there, having assumed the form of a rogue,

clad in a worn rag-garment, O goddess, filthy, and grey with dust.

Then those brahmins, enraged upon seeing him in the form of a rogue / holding a human skull, all reviled him with cries of “Fie!”

“Again and again, sinner, sinner! Begone, begone, lowest of men! / For the sacrificial altar is not fit for you, a bearer of human bones!”

Then, laughing heartily, the Lord threw the skull / onto the sacrificial altar, O ruler of the gods, and vanished; he was not recognized by the wise men.

When he had vanished, that skull was thrown outside the pavilion; / but then another of identical form appeared there, O fair-faced one.

As often as it was thrown away, another appeared there upon the earth: / thus hundreds of thousands, millions, and tens of millions.

As [many] were thrown there, so many were produced. Filled with astonishment at that, / all the sages, despondent at his deed, then said:

“Who other than the god Mahādeva, whose crest is washed by the Gaṅgā, / is capable of doing such a thing, especially at this sacrifice?”

Then, praising the one whose banner bears a bull with various hymns of praise, / they repeatedly performed oblations into the fire with the Śatarudrīya mantras.

Then the god Maheśvara became visible before their eyes. / Thereupon they praised the trident-bearing Lord with various hymns of praise, / with diverse mantras taught in the Vedas, and likewise with those taught in the Purāṇas.

The seers said: / “Oṃ, homage to the primal nature, to the unconquered Great Self, / to the unobstructed god, to the desireless one, homage, homage!

Homage to the first seed, the source of the seers, the impeller, / to the endless, the one, the unmanifest, homage, homage!

Homage to the supreme one, adorned with diverse, wondrous serpent-armlets, Lord of all, free from passion, / the Self of the universe, the cause of the supreme cause, whose wide, expansive eyes are like blooming lotuses!

That which they declare to be the unseeable, unmanifest, beginningless, imperishable, indestructible, all-pervading Brahman, / having perceived which one is freed from the jaws of death—in that primeval god I take refuge.”

Thus praised then by all the sinless seers, / Mahādeva, pleased thereby, appeared before their eyes / and the god said to those seers: “Choose an excellent boon!”

The brahmins said: / “If you are pleased with us, O God, remain devoted to this place, / since countless skulls, O ruler of the gods,

appeared again and again, even when removed, O Lord. / Without doubt, in this place, bearing the name Kapāleśvara,

may your liṅga remain self-manifest, O Lord of gods, until another manvantara; / make your abode in this place under the name Kapāleśvara.

Those who will worship you here with incense, garlands, and ointments— / for them shall be the supreme abode, which is hard even for the gods to attain.”

Saying, “So be it,” Maheśvara remained there. / And the sacrifice of the lord of the night was resumed, O passionate lady.

When it is beheld, a mortal obtains the fruit of a horse-sacrifice, O dear one, / and is freed from all sins, even those accumulated in previous births.

This entire māhātmya occurred in the Svāyambhuva manvantara. / But in the Vaivasvata manvantara there was another, which brought about the destruction of Dakṣa’s sacrifice.

Formerly, Maheśāna Hara was called ‘Kapālī’ by Dakṣa; / on account of that, Kapālī then destroyed his sacrifice. / Under the name Kapāleśvara he has remained in this manvantara.

Then, in the Sūryasāvarṇika manvantara, the name of this god / will be Tattveśvara, O fair-hipped lady.

Thus has been declared in brief the māhātmya whose deity is Rudra, / which destroys the sins of all living beings and brings release from the snare of the beast.

Thus ends the one hundred and third chapter, entitled ‘The Description of the Māhātmya of Kapāleśvara’ in the Middle Pilgrimage, in the first section, the Prabhāsakṣetramāhātmya, in the seventh book, Prabhāsakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand [verses].