Skandapurana 16.118

Īśvara said: / Then, O great goddess, one should go to the unexcelled Gopyāditya, / in the north-west direction from Bhūteśa, at an interval of thirty bows.

Situated in the south-east of the slayer of the Daityas Bala and Atibala, / at [a distance of] ten bows, O goddess, it stands destroying sins.

I shall relate its auspicious origin, which takes away great sins, / hearing which with devotion a mortal is freed from sorrows and grief.

Formerly, when Kṛṣṇa of great splendour came to Prabhāsa / accompanied by all the Yādavas, fifty-six crores [in number],

sixteen thousand cowherd women (gopīs) came there, / and one hundred and sixty thousand sons of Kṛṣṇa, O beloved.

They settled there in the sacred field of Prabhāsa, which destroys sins, / occupying the Yādavasthala as far as the Raivataka mountain.

Those men of great might stayed there for twelve years. / Taking up the holy sacred field, they all individually installed / Śivaliṅgas marked with their own names.

Thus all the foremost of the Yādavas covered that entire sacred field, / extending for twelve yojanas, with banner-bearing liṅgas.

O goddess, at intervals of one cubit across the middle of the sacred field, temples / endowed with golden pinnacles and filling the sky with flags / shone forth standing there like pillars of fame of Hari.

Then, O great goddess, the cowherd women who are remembered as the foremost sixteen— / I shall tell you their names; hear them with a one-pointed mind:

Lambinī, Candrikā, Kāntā, Krūrā, Śāntā, Mahodayā, / Bhīṣaṇī, Nandinī, Aśokā, Suparṇā, Vimalā, Akṣayā,

Śubhadā, Śobhanā, Puṇyā—these are remembered as the digits of the Swan (Haṃsa). / The Swan indeed is considered to be Kṛṣṇa, Janārdana, the Supreme Self.

These are proclaimed as his sixteen powers (śaktis), O goddess; / therefore Kṛṣṇa has the form of the moon, while they are remembered as having the forms of its digits.

The sixteenth digit among them is Mālinī, forming the full disc. / Beginning from the first lunar day (pratipad), the moon moves through these.

Those sixteen digits that took the form of cowherd women, O fair-faced one, / were each separately multiplied by a thousand.

Thus has the secret born of wisdom been told to you, O goddess. / The man who understands it thus is to be known as a Vaiṣṇava by the wise.

Then, learning that separate temples had been built by the Yādavas, / all those gopīs too, sixteen thousand [in number], / having obtained Kṛṣṇa's permission, established the Sun with devotion. // 17

Together with the ṛṣis headed by Nārada and the inhabitants of the sacred field, / they installed that Sun according to the rules of consecration. // 18

When the Sun was consecrated, they gave lavish gifts / of cows, land, gold, and garments to the residents of the sacred field. // 19

Then all those ṛṣis, pleased and delighted at heart, / gave the Sun there the renowned name of Gopyāditya, / the god who removes all sin and bestows great good fortune. // 20

Having done this, their purpose achieved and having attained great renown, / all [of them] returned to Dvārakā with Kṛṣṇa just as they had come. // 21

Again, after a lapse of time, O goddess, beloved, by the curse of Durvāsas, / they came to the place of the Yādavas in Prabhāsa, which destroys sin. // 22

Thus has the origin of Gopyāditya been told to you, O goddess; / I shall now declare to you in sequence its māhātmya arising from worship and obeisance. // 23

O goddess, he who was consecrated by the gopīs in this Mitravana— / by the mere darśana of him, one is freed from grief and sorrow. // 24

Those men who take refuge in the Sun of the gopīs / attain that destination [reached] by austerity well performed here or by sacrifices with lavish priestly gifts. // 25

The one whose devotion is directed whole-heartedly to Gopyāditya / is praiseworthy and truly blessed, O Maheśvarī, having achieved his goal. // 26

A blessed man who purifies his family is born even in our family, / fortunate is he by whom the Sun has been worshipped with devotion. // 27

A man who worships [him] at dawn on the seventh day in the month of Māgha, O beloved, / delivers seven ancestors and seven descendants. // 28

He destroys diseases and wicked deeds, and conquers enemies difficult to overcome. // 29

On the seventh day, one should not touch oil, nor wear blue cloth, / nor bathe with myrobalan fruits, nor quarrel anywhere. // 30

Whatever rite a twice-born performs wearing a garment dyed blue— / ritual ablution, gifts, recitation of mantras, oblations, study of the Veda, offerings to the ancestors— / his great sacrifices are in vain, because of wearing indigo thread. // 31

When a brahmin wears a cloth dyed with indigo upon his limbs, / he becomes purified by [consuming] the five products of the cow after fasting for a day and night. // 32

If the juice of indigo enters anyone's hair follicle, / that brahmin becomes fallen, [and] purifies [himself] with three kṛcchra penances. // 33

If a brahmin inadvertently enters an indigo plantation anywhere, / he becomes purified by [consuming] the five products of the cow after fasting for a day and night. // 34

If the indigo plant pierces the body of brahmins / and blood is seen there, the twice-born must perform a cāndrāyaṇa penance. // 35

Whoever unknowingly cleans his teeth with an indigo twig, / the wise have declared that he is purified after performing two kṛcchra penances. // 36

Thus, O goddess, the great glory of Gopyāditya has been related, / which destroys sins of all creatures and, when heard, accomplishes all desires. // 37

The merit that is gained by giving a hundred thousand cows in Kurujāṅgala, / O queen of the gods, is gained by the darśana of Gopyāditya. // 38

Thus ends the hundred and eighteenth chapter, entitled 'Description of the Māhātmya of Gopyāditya,' in the first [part], Prabhāsakṣetramāhātmya, of the seventh section, Prabhāsakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skandapurāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand verses. // 118