Skandapurana 16.37

The Goddess said: / "For what purpose, O God, is a bracelet cast into the salt water? / Its merit was not told before; please explain it properly.

What are the mantras? What is that ritual procedure? At what time is there great fruit? / And what happened in the past, O Lord, concerning this bracelet?"

Īśvara said: / "Formerly there was a king known as Bṛhadratha; / his wife was a virtuous and beloved woman named Indumatī.

Neither a goddess, nor a gandharva woman, nor an asura woman, nor a kinnara woman / was of such form, O great Goddess, as that slender-waisted lady was.

Endowed with good character, beauty, and virtues, she was always devoted to her husband, / equipped with all the virtues of women, just like the virtuous Arundhatī.

[...] proud with the pride of good fortune; / without her, the ruler of the earth did not find delight even for a moment.

Once, while that virtuous woman was sharing half the seat of that royal seer, / O king of kings, a seer arrived— / Kanva by name, of great splendour, an ascetic who had mastered the Vedas.

Seeing him arrived, the ruler of the earth immediately arose, / performed worship according to rule, and offered excellent water of guest-offering.

Then, knowing that bull among sages to be comfortably seated and rested, / the king inquired about his welfare, and he approved of everything.

Then that seer delivered a discourse on dharma in the presence of the king.

Then, at the conclusion of the discourse, the chaste wife of that king, / with folded hands, spoke nectar-like words:

Indumatī said: / You know everything, O blessed lord, past and future, O all-pervading one. / Filled with curiosity, I ask you; therefore you ought to forgive me.

Tell me all the karma born of my other body [in a previous birth], / [which caused] such good fortune of mine, and a husband comparable to the son of a god.

Good fortune, devotion to my husband, and conduct renowned throughout the three worlds: / is this the power of an observance, or perhaps of fasting,

or of giving, O best of sages, that gives me such supreme good fortune? / The mighty-armed king is subject to me, ever obedient to my word.

Tell me all this, for my curiosity is great.

Sūta said: / Having heard her word and meditated for a long time, the sage / Kaṇva, the best of the knowers of the Veda, smiled and spoke these words.

Kaṇva said: / Listen, O queen, I shall tell you what arose in your other body. / You should not feel anger, nor indeed shame, O slender-waisted lady.

In another body you were a cowherd woman (ābhīrī) having five husbands; / of low birth in the land of Saurāṣṭra, you went to the god Someśvara.

Then, having entered the salty waters of the ocean to bathe, / struck by rows of large waves, you were overcome with distress.

There, a golden bangle slipped from your hand / and was lost in the water of the ocean; but remorse remained within you.

Then after a long time you met your death. / Thereupon you were born in the house of the lord of Daśārṇa, O lovely lady.

And you were wedded by Bṛhadratha, through the power of the bangle. / Neither observance, nor austerity, nor gift was performed by you formerly, O auspicious lady.

All this has been related to you, which you asked me. / Having heard that, the large-eyed lady cast her face downward in modesty; / the queen then remained silent having heard such words.

Having thus informed the king's wife, O fair-faced one, / that sage took leave of the lord of the earth and went to his own abode.

Knowing the fruit of the bangle through the power of that sage, / she went to the god Someśvara, bathed in the salt water,

and cast a bangle there every year, O greatly radiant one; / thereupon she attained godhood through the power of that, O passionate lady.

Īśvara said: / This great power of the bangle has been proclaimed, / which grants all desires, O goddess, and destroys all sins.

Thus ends the thirty-seventh chapter, named 'Description of the Glory of the Bangle' in the Glory of Someśvara, in the Glory of the Prabhāsa Sacred Field, in the First [Part of] the Prabhāsa Section, in the Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.