Skandapurana 17.8

King Bhoja said: / O lord Sārasvata, I have heard the supreme glory / of the sacred field Vastrāpatha and of Mount Raivataka,

and especially of the water arising from the Svarṇarekhā. / Now I wish to hear the origin of the sacred ford; tell me:

Among Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Śiva, and the others, who is situated here? / What is this river Svarṇarekhā, the destroyer of all sins?

Why did the gods headed by Brahmā come to this sacred ford? / How did Lord Nārāyaṇa himself come?

Why did Bhavānī, abandoning Himālaya, remain on the mountain summit, / taking Skanda, together with the gods headed by Indra?

Sārasvata said: / Hear everything, O great king, I will tell it in detail, / by the recitation of which the destruction of all sins occurs.

Formerly, at the end of Brahmā’s day, having dissolved this world, moving and unmoving, / the blessed Lord Rudra, preceded by Brahmā and Viṣṇu—

those three, having become a single form, remained for that whole night; / at the end of the night they became distinct once more.

Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva are the gods composed of rajas, sattva, and tamas. / The blessed Lord Brahmā performs creation; Hari preserves;

Rudra dissolves the entire world according to the measure of time. / First, by him the Prajāpati named Dakṣa was created.

Having made all the universe, moving and unmoving, in brief, / the three gods became separate and were situated in Satyaloka.

The three, having approached the earth with their minds filled with curiosity, / ascended Kailāsa, the excellent mountain, surrounded by the gods.

'I am the eldest!' 'I am the eldest!'—a dispute arose between Brahmā and Rudra. / Then Mahādeva, enraged, set about to slay Brahmā.

Brahmā was restrained by Viṣṇu: 'A dispute is not proper for you. / When neither you, nor I, nor this universe, moving and unmoving, [existed],

at that time only one god, Maheśvara, slept upon the water. / And when the god awakes according to his own will, then out of sport,

you were created by him first, and I was created later by you. / By his grace the universe was supported in the form of a tortoise.

And through the grace of Śaṃkara, [we] entered into the universe. / All creation was made by you, and protection is established in me.

Sitting like one indifferent, he perceives the essence from worldly existence. / The god Śiva, the all-pervading Maheśvara, is one alone.

Your status as the Grandfather arose by the grace of Śaṃkara.' / Having heard the word of Hari, Brahmā propitiated Hara,

[saying]: 'The God without beginning or end, many-headed, mighty-armed'— / with these and other Vedic words. Then Maheśvara, pleased, / said: 'O Brahmā, choose a boon that resides in your mind.'

Thus ends the eighth chapter, named 'Description of the Propitiation of Rudra performed by Brahmā at the Word of Viṣṇu during the Dispute between Brahmā and Rudra,' in the Glory of the Vastrāpatha Field, in the second [sub-section], in the Prabhāsa Section, in the Śrī Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.