Skandapurana 16.13

The goddess said: / When Savitṛ, the son-in-law, standing on the lathe, was affectionately pared with the razor's edge / by his father-in-law, O Mahādeva, (1)

what became of that abundant splendour pared away, which fell in Prabhāsa? / Tell me that, O god, regarding Prabhāsa! (2)

Īśvara said: / Listen, O goddess, I shall proclaim the supreme māhātmya of Sūrya, / hearing which with devotion, a mortal is freed from all sins. (3)

I shall narrate to you, O renowned goddess, the Purāṇic account / of the descent of the god's body and of Arkasthala in Prabhāsa. (4)

In Śākadvīpa, O great goddess, while the Sun, standing on the lathe, / was being pared for more than a hundred years, (5)

the splendour produced from the first portion fell in Prabhāsa, O beloved; / having fallen there, that splendour assumed the form of a mound. (6)

Formerly, O goddess, it was of gold on the earth; / by virtue of the age of Tiṣya, it has now become stony. (7)

And there, having assumed a solar form, the god who makes the day / was born on the surface of the earth for the welfare of all beings. (8)

In the Kṛta age it was called by the name Hiraṇyagarbha, and celebrated as Sūrya; / in the Tretā age its name was Savitṛ; in the Dvāpara age it was remembered as Bhāskara; (9)

and in the Kali age it is celebrated as Arkasthala in the three worlds. / This descended [form], O goddess, became established by itself. (10)

Formerly, O goddess, when Svārociṣa was the second Manu, / at that time this god, the maker of the day, descended there. (11)

Granting devotion and liberation, O goddess, destroying diseases and sorrows, / an area of five yojanas is pervaded by particles arising from his brilliance.

From south to north, O goddess, and five from east to west, / north of the ocean up to the Māheśvarī river,

and west of the Nyaṅkumatī up to Kṛtasmaram, / this is pervaded, O great goddess, by those auspicious particles of his brilliance.

The subtle radiance that issued from the original brilliance / pervaded [an area] of twelve yojanas, O great goddess.

To the north is the daughter of the sun, to the south the lord of rivers [the ocean]; / to the east and west, O goddess, the pair of Rukmiṇīs is recorded.

Within this interval, O goddess, the solar brilliance spread; / by that, the sacred field of twelve yojanas was purified.

The very center of its middle is my abode, O beautiful one; / situated in the center of the orb of brilliance is my place, O great goddess.

Just as the pupil, O goddess, is in the middle of the orb of the eye; / from east to west, O goddess, from Gomukha up to the Āśvamedhika,

from south to north, O goddess, from the ocean to Kauraveśvarī, / in this intermediate sacred field I am the knower of the field, O fair-faced one.

Because my abode is illumined by the brilliance of the sun, / therefore it is renowned in this kalpa by the name Prabhāsa, O beloved.

Whoever, the best of men, sees the sun there in the form of an arka plant, / freed from all sins, is glorified in the world of the sun.

He has bathed in all the sacred fords, he has sacrificed with great sacrifices; / he has given all gifts, and the ancestors have been pleased by him.

Since the sun was born there on the earth having the form of an arka plant, / therefore the arka must always be avoided in eating here, without a doubt.

The mortal who, having seen Arkasthala, eats from leaves of the arka plant, / beef has been eaten by him, O passionate woman.

The sun is eaten by him; that man becomes a leper. / Therefore, with all effort, one should avoid arka leaves.

By whom the Arka-sun is seen first during the pilgrimage, O goddess, / having seen him, he should give a female buffalo to a learned brahmin,

along with copper-colored or red cloth; then the sun is pleased. / And situated in its vicinity, in the southeast fire corner,

not far away, O highly fortunate one, is known as Siddheśvara, / a liṅga granting all perfections, O goddess, worshipped in the three worlds.

Formerly, in the Kṛta age, it was named Jaigīṣavyeśvara; / in the Kali [age], O beloved, it attained renown as Siddheśvara.

A mortal who sees it, O goddess, attains all perfections. / In that very place, O ruler of gods, situated not far off,

to the south-southwest of the sun, O beloved, is the chasm to Pātāla, / where the Mandeha demons and the Śālakaṭaṅkaṭas,

burnt by the brilliance of the sun, formerly went down to Pātāla. / In the Kali [age] only its door exists, O beloved, not access to Pātāla.

The yoginīs protect it there, as do the Mothers beginning with Brāhmī. / On the fourteenth day of the dark half of Māgha, at night, one should worship the groups of Mothers / with offerings, flowers, and presents; then perfection will arise.

Thus, indeed, having heard of this delineation of the body of the sun, / the cause of the state of all righteousness, praised by Hara, Viṣṇu, and the lotus-seated Brahmā, / one goes to the world of the sun at the end of life.

Thus ends the thirteenth chapter, named 'Description of the Origin of Arkasthala and the Naming of Prabhāsa as Pure,' in the first [part], the Māhātmya of Prabhāsa Sacred Field, in the seventh [book], the Prabhāsakhaṇḍa, in the Skanda Mahāpurāṇa of eighty-one thousand verses.