Skandapurana 16.166

The goddess said: / Sāvitrī, who is situated in Prabhāsa and is the beloved of Brahmā— / tell me her story, O god of gods, O lord of the world,

endowed with the glory of the vow, accompanied by historical narrative, / which produces the vow of chastity for women, bringing great fortune and great prosperity.

Īśvara said: / I shall tell, O great goddess, the great story of Sāvitrī, / situated in the sacred field of Prabhāsa at her holy site, O Maheśvarī, / [and] how the vow-making [observance] was performed by Sāvitrī, the king’s daughter.

In Madra there was a righteous ruler named Aśvapati, / devoted to the welfare of all beings, dear to town and country people.

He was forgiving, childless, truth-speaking, and self-controlled. / That king went on a pilgrimage to the sacred field of Prabhāsa; / performing the pilgrimage according to rule, he came to the place of Sāvitrī.

The king himself, accompanied by his wife, performed this vow there, / celebrated as 'Sāvitrī', which grants the fruits of all desires.

O goddess, Sāvitrī, the beloved of Brahmā, became pleased with him; / she who is 'bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ' stood revealed in bodily form.

Bearing a water-pot, the goddess vanished again. / After a long time, a daughter of divine form was born.

Given by Sāvitrī who was pleased, and through the worship of Sāvitrī, / the king, by the command of the brahmins, gave her the name Sāvitrī.

Like Fortune incarnate, the king's daughter grew up; / delicate of limb, Sāvitrī reached youthfulness.

She of slender waist and broad hips was like a golden statue; / seeing her, people thought, 'Has a daughter of the gods arrived?'

She, lotuseyed and large-eyed, blazing as it were with splendour, / that Sāvitrī performed the vow that was proclaimed by Bhṛgu.

Then, having fasted, having washed her head, and having approached the deity, / having offered oblation into the fire according to rule, the fair-complexioned one had the brahmins recite [blessings].

Receiving from them the remaining flowers, the king's daughter, / surrounded by friends, stepped forward, a goddess in the form of Śrīvatsa.

Having paid homage to her father's feet and having first offered the remaining [flowers], / the lovely woman stood at the king's side with folded hands.

Seeing his own daughter of divine form who had attained youth, / the king, having consulted with his ministers for his daughter's sake, said:

‘O daughter, the time for giving you away [in marriage] has arrived, and no one asks me [for your hand]. / Deliberating, I do not see a bridegroom equal to yourself here.

Act in such a way that I may not be censured by gods and others. / What is read in the Dharmaśāstras has been heard by me, O daughter:

“That maiden who in her father's house sees her menses while unbetrothed / [causes] the sin of killing a brahmin to her father, and that maiden is deemed a degraded woman.”

For this purpose I send you; O daughter, make your own choice of a husband. / Accompanied by elderly ministers, go quickly and decide.’

Saying 'Let it be so,' Sāvitrī departed from there; / she went to the delightful penance groves of the royal seers.

There, having performed prostration at the feet of the venerable elders, / and then having visited all the sacred fords and the hermitages,

Sāvitrī came back home together with the ministers. / There she saw the pure celestial seer Nārada before her.

Having bowed to the brahmin seated on the seat, she who speaks with a smile / related that business on account of which she had gone to the forest.

Sāvitrī said: / In Śālva there was a righteous ruler of the earth, a kṣatriya, / known as Dyumatsena; by fate, he became blind.

The noble Dyumatsena, whose son was still a child, had his kingdom seized by Rukmin, / a feudatory who was his ancient enemy, taking advantage of this weakness.

Together with his wife and young child, he departed for the forest.

And in that forest, his son, most righteous, grew up; / he is Satyavān, suited to be my husband, desired by my heart.”

Nārada said: / “Alas, O king, a great mistake has been made by Sāvitrī! / Out of childish innocence she has chosen the virtuous Satyavān.

His father speaks the truth, his mother speaks the truth, / and because the sages said ‘Speak the truth!’, his name was made Satyavān.

Horses are always dear to him, and he makes clay horses; / he also paints horses in pictures, and so he is called Citrāśva.

Satyavān is a disciple of Rantideva, equal to him in the virtues of generosity; / he is devoted to brahmins and truthful in speech, like Śibi the Auśīnara.

He is generous like Yayāti, pleasing to behold like the Moon; / in beauty Dyumatsena’s mighty son is like one of the Aśvins.

He has one flaw, and no other: beginning from today, Satyavān, / his lifespan exhausted within one year, will abandon his body.”

Having heard Nārada’s words, the daughter said to the king:

Sāvitrī said: / “Kings speak only once, brahmins speak only once, / a maiden is given away only once: these three happen only once each.

Whether long-lived or short-lived, with virtues or without virtues, / he has been chosen once by me as husband; I will not choose a second.

Having resolved in the mind, one then expresses it in speech; / afterwards it is carried out in action: therefore the mind is the true authority.”

Nārada said: / “If this is your wish, let it be carried out at once, / the giving away of your daughter Sāvitrī without impediment.”

Having spoken thus, Nārada flew up and went to heaven; / and the king then performed all the marriage rites for his daughter / at an auspicious hour, together with the brahmins versed in the Vedas standing beside him.

And Sāvitrī, having obtained that husband desired by her heart, / the slender-limbed maiden rejoiced exceedingly, like a doer of meritorious deeds reaching heaven.

While those virtuous people were living there in the hermitage, / some time passed as they watched, O Pārvatī.

And as that woman Sāvitrī stayed there day and night, / what had been spoken by Nārada remained in her mind.

Then, after a great deal of time had elapsed, / the time arrived when the king Satyavrata was to die.

In the month of Jyeṣṭha, in the bright fortnight, on the twelfth day, at nightfall, / Sāvitrī was counting in her heart the words spoken by Nārada.

Thinking, ‘He must die on the fourth day,’ that splendid woman, / undertaking a three-night vow, stayed day and night in the hermitage.

Then, having observed the three nights, having bathed and propitiated the deity, / she of charming smile bowed down at the feet of her mother-in-law and father-in-law.

Then Satyavān set out for the forest, taking an axe; / Sāvitrī also followed behind her departing husband.

Then, having quickly gathered fruits, flowers, kindling, and kuśa grass, / and taking dry firewood, he prepared a load of wood.

Then, as he was splitting the wood, a pain arose in his head; / letting go of the load of wood in an instant, clinging to a banyan branch,

he said to Sāvitrī: “A pain in my head torments me; / I wish to sleep for a moment on your lap, O lovely one.”

“Rest, O mighty-armed one,” Sāvitrī said sorrowfully; / “afterwards we shall go to the hermitage that removes fatigue.”

As she placed his head upon her lap on the surface of the earth, / just then Sāvitrī saw a dark and tawny man,

wearing a diadem, dressed in yellow garments, like the risen sun itself. / Then Sāvitrī bowed down and spoke to him in sweet words:

“Who are you—a god or a Daitya—who has come to assail me? / And I cannot be deflected from my own duty by anyone, O divine one.

Know me, O best of men, to be like a blazing flame of fire.”

Yama said: / “I am Yama the Restrainer, who inspires fear in all the worlds.

Your husband’s lifespan is exhausted; while he is in your presence, O devoted wife, / my attendants cannot lead him away; therefore I have come in person.”

Having spoken thus, holding a noose, Yama pulled out by force / from Satyavrata’s body a man the size of a thumb.

Then he began to travel upon the path frequented by the ancestors; / Sāvitrī, too, of shapely hips, followed behind him.

Untired on account of her devotion to her husband, Yama spoke to her thus: / “Turn back, go, O Sāvitrī; you have come this far for a moment.

This path, O large-eyed one, is not to be followed by anyone.”

Sāvitrī said: / “No weariness and no exhaustion ever arises in me / as I follow my husband, and in the presence of an exalted one.

The good are the refuge of the good, no other; a husband is always the refuge of women; / the Veda is the refuge of the classes and life-stages, and the teacher is the refuge of disciples.

For all beings there is a place on the surface of the earth; / women have no refuge other than their husband alone.”

With other such very sweet words endowed with righteousness and meaning, / the son of the Sun was pleased, and he addressed Sāvitrī:

Yama said: / “I am pleased with you, good fortune to you! Choose a boon, O beautiful woman.” / With her face bowed in modesty, she chose their kingdom,

the restoration of eyesight and the kingdom for her noble father-in-law, / a hundred sons for her father, and a hundred sons for herself,

and the life of her husband, and eternal attainment of dharma. / Having granted the boons, the King of Dharma then sent her away.

Then, having reached her husband, Sāvitrī, glad at heart, / went untroubled to her own hermitage together with her husband.

And on the full moon of Jyeṣṭha, this observance was performed by her. / Through its māhātmya, the king first regained his eyesight.

Then the king obtained his own realm free from thorns. / Her father obtained a hundred sons, and she obtained a hundred sons.

Thus the entire māhātmya of the observance has been recounted by me.

The Devī said: / Of what kind was that great observance, O Lord, performed by Sāvitrī / in that month of Jyeṣṭha, and what is its rite?

Who is the deity in that observance? What are the mantras? What is the fruit, O All-pervading One? / Tell in detail, O Maheśa, the eternal dharma.

Īśvara said: / Listen with devotion, O queen of the god of gods, to the Sāvitrī observance, / O Maheśvarī; I shall recount how it was performed by that faithful woman.

On the thirteenth day of Jyeṣṭha, preceded by cleaning the teeth, / one should undertake a three-night rule of fasting, O passionate lady.

One who is unable, having subdued the senses, should observe a night meal on the thirteenth, / unsolicited food on the fourteenth, and the full moon with a complete fast.

Having constantly bathed in a pond, a great river, or a torrent, / one obtains the fruit of all ritual ablutions at the Pāṇḍukūpa, O woman of beautiful hips.

Especially on the full moon, there is a ritual ablution with water mixed with mustard and clay.

Having taken sand in a vessel measuring a prastha, O illustrious lady, / or having taken grain—barley, rice, sesame, and the rest,

then, having fashioned in a bamboo vessel wrapped with a pair of cloths / an image of Sāvitrī adorned with all limbs,

made of gold or of clay, or made of wood according to one's means, / one should give a pair of red garments to Sāvitrī, and a white one to Brahmā.

Thus, according to one's capacity, one should worship Sāvitrī together with Brahmā / with perfumes, fragrant flowers, incense, food offerings, and lamps,

with ripe full loofahs, gourds, and cucumbers, / with coconuts, dates, wood apples, and auspicious pomegranates,

with rose apples, citrons, oranges, walnuts, and jackfruits, / with cumin, pieces of bitter spices, molasses, and salt,

and with the sprouted seven grains arranged in a bamboo vessel; / and one should colour it with silk threads and auspicious saffron filaments.

Thus Sāvitrī, the beloved of Brahmā, descends.

One should worship her together with Brahmā with the Sāvitrī mantra. / For the others, this mantra proclaimed in the Purāṇa is recited:

‘O goddess preceded by the syllable Om, holding a vīṇā and a book, / O mother of the Vedas, salutations to you! Grant me freedom from widowhood!’

Having worshipped thus according to rule, one should keep a vigil there. / With the sound of singing and musical instruments, a crowd of men and women, / dancing and laughing, should spend the night with those skilled in the science of dance.

And one should have the best of twice-born recite the tale of Sāvitrī / until daybreak, along with the rasas of song and sentiment.

Having performed in this manner the marriage of Sāvitrī with Brahmā, / and having clothed seven married couples in white garments,

a gift of a house should be given, accompanied by all utensils. / One should present the Sāvitrī [image] to a brahmin learned in the Veda,

or to one who knows the ritual of Sāvitrī, a reciter of the tale of Sāvitrī, / an astrologer, one who lives by gleaning, or a poor agnihotrin.

Having given in this manner according to the rite, one should invite on that night / fourteen married couples under a banyan tree on the full moon.

Then at dawn, when daybreak has arrived, / one should bring all chewable and edible food to the site of Sāvitrī.

Having cooked with purity and having guarded [it] with care, / the wise person should then summon the brahmins accompanied by their wives.

Having performed the washing of their feet there at the site of Sāvitrī, / one should seat the well-bathed brahmins there along with their wives.

In front of Sāvitrī, O Devī, one should offer a meal to the married couples. / By that, I am fed there in this world; there is no doubt.

He who feeds a second [couple] feeds Keśava. / The companion of Lakṣmī, the giver of boons, bestows boons upon him.

Brahmā accompanied by Sāvitrī becomes fed in the third. / Each single meal there is declared equal to ten million meals.

A meal of eighteen varieties seasoned with the six tastes / [is offered] to the Devī there, O Mahādevī, in the presence of Sāvitrī’s site.

In his family there is no widow, no barren woman, and no unfortunate woman, / nor one who bears only daughters, nor one disliked by her husband. / The eight faults of women never occur.

Therefore, with every effort, in front of Sāvitrī a meal / should always be given, O Devī, devoid of pungent and indigo foods.

Neither sour nor alkaline food is ever to be eaten by women; / it should be of five kinds, sweet, agreeable, and all well prepared.

There should be cakes filled with ghee and accompanied by abundant milk; / such cakes are to be made; the second is the aśokavartikā.

The third pastry should be made accompanied by dates; / and the fourth is the saṃyāva dish, prepared with molasses and ghee.

It brings delight to men and is exceedingly dear to women. / Endowed with wealth, grain, and people, crowded with hundreds of women and men, / her family becomes such through cakes; there is no doubt about this.

There is no fever, no burning torment, and no grief born of separation / for twenty-one generations through the gift of the aśokavarti.

Filled with daughters-in-law, sons, and countless female and male servants / is the family of her who gives pūrikā cakes.

Daughters having sons along with daughters-in-law [abound] in the family / of young women who give śikhariṇī; of this there is no doubt.

And the whole family rejoices, filled with all accomplishments, / through the donation of modakas: so spoke the Grandfather.

And this meal is praised particularly for married women.

She becomes fortunate, blessed with sons, chaste, endowed with wealth and prosperity, / and feeds thousands, O goddess, in birth after birth. // 115

And chief drinks, delightful and sweet: / grape juice, and tamarind drink mixed with jaggery, // 116

and delicious sugar beverage prepared with fragrant water / should certainly be offered as a drink to married women and to twice-born men. // 117

By other [castes] should be offered other fragrant drinks / suitable for [their] caste, whatever is appropriate for them. // 118

Having honoured them according to the rule with gifts of clothes including bodices, / their limbs anointed with saffron, adorned with garlands of flowers, / and having worshiped them with scents and incenses, one should offer coconuts. // 119

Having applied collyrium to their eyes and vermilion on their forehead, / placing delightful, scented, and soft betel nuts / in their hands along with vessels, one should bow down and bid them farewell. // 120

Afterward, one should eat oneself along with relatives and children. // 121

Or, if the meal cannot be arranged at the sacred ford, / one should go home and eat, so that the goddess may be pleased. // 122

In this very manner, having returned to one's own house, / and having performed the śrāddha for the ancestors preceded by the offering of piṇḍas according to the rule, / his ancestors indeed remain satisfied for a day of Brahmā. // 123

The merit of giving in one's own auspicious home is eight times greater than at a sacred ford, / and vile persons do not look upon the śrāddha offered by the twice-born. // 124

The śrāddha for the ancestors is desired [to be performed] in a secluded, secret house; / destroyed when seen by a base person, it does not reach the ancestors. // 125

Therefore, with every effort, one should perform the śrāddha secretly; / it is declared by the Self-manifest [Brahmā] himself to bring satisfaction to the ancestors. // 126

The ritual such as feeding [girls representing] Gaurī, which is performed publicly, / is declared to be rājasika, granting fame among people. // 127

This gift should always be given by one who desires his own welfare, / and especially in a śrāddha, if one desires a sāttvika fruit. // 128

This concluding rite of the vow of Sāvitrī, O goddess, / should always be performed by men to purify all sins; / whether unintentionally or intentionally, sin is destroyed in that very moment. // 129

In this world, good fortune, wealth, grain, and excellent wives / of various kinds belong to those by whom the pilgrimage was made there. // 130

The man who performs this rite of pilgrimage with devotion / or hears it is freed from all sins. // 131

On the full moon of the month of Jyeṣṭha, at the auspicious place of Sāvitrī, / he who performs circumambulation according to the rule with offerings of fruits, // 132

either one hundred and eight times, or half of that, or half of that, / whichever man performs circumambulations there, O goddess, // 133

if men have committed intercourse with forbidden women knowingly, / such and other sins are destroyed; of this there is no doubt. // 134

By those who, having gone to the sacred place of Sāvitrī, have performed the twilight worship / using water from the Pāṇḍukūpa well by the hand of their own wife, // 135

bringing the sacred water in a golden pitcher or an earthen one, O passionate woman, / whoever performs the twilight worship, / by him the twilight worship has indeed been performed for twelve years. // 136

The fruit of a horse-sacrifice is obtained by ablution, ten times that by donation, / infinite by fasting, and likewise by hearing the sacred story. // 137

Thus ends the one hundred and sixty-sixth chapter, named 'The Account of the Rules, Method of Worship, and Concluding Rite of the Vow of Sāvitrī', in the first [sub-section], the Prabhāsakṣetramāhātmya, of the seventh section, the Prabhāsakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses. // 166