Skandapurana 2.2.42

Jaimini said:

When the sun enters the sign of the deer (Makara), O best of the twice-born,

desiring to move toward the northern direction, that is the Uttarāyaṇa.

Half of its ingress, lasting twenty kalās,

is an exceedingly auspicious time, dear to ancestors, deities, and the twice-born.

A man, having bathed there properly in the waters of the king of sacred fords (Tīrtharāja),

having worshipped Nārāyaṇa and bowed to the wishing tree (kalpavṛkṣa),

and having entered the abode of the deity and circumambulated it three times,

worshipping the divine Śrī Puruṣottama with the king of mantras,

should likewise worship Bala and Subhadrā each with their own mantra.

Beholding the God at the Uttarāyaṇa, one is released from the bondage of the body.

I shall declare its procedure, which is great and purifying; listen!

On the day prior to the transit (saṅkrānti), having well pounded new rice,

and having placed it in the eastern part of the temple, one should consecrate it with preliminary rites.

Covering it with a new cloth, with dūrvā grass, mustard seeds, and flowers,

having worshipped it, one should consecrate it with the mantra: 'May Kṛṣṇa protect you.'

When that very night watch has passed, of the Lord of the world

one should bring the representative image into his presence, focusing with a mind on oneness.

With collected mind, one should worship [it] with the remaining services of honor.

Then one should place the garments and garland of cast-off offerings upon it.

With great splendor, one should then carry that image around the deities three times.

Having placed [the image] upon a palanquin, one should bring it to the temple door,

the all-pervading Trivikrama, who traverses the three worlds in three strides.

Imitating that divine play, one should circumambulate him around the temple,

Three times at the end, and again in the courtyard, with great opulence, very slowly,

Amid the veil of darkness held back by hundreds of torches,

With parasols, banners, and flags, with dances, musical instruments, and songs.

For the great-souled whose sins are destroyed by the sight of him,

There is no mark [of sin] on the body; then [takes place] the circumambulation around the nine parts [of the temple].

Those who then follow him, Trivikrama, as he proceeds in the festival,

They indeed obtain at every step the fruit of a horse sacrifice.

By seeing the first circumambulation, one is freed from the five major sins;

By the second circumambulation, O brahmins, one is freed from defiling sins;

By seeing the third circumambulation, surely [freed] from sins causing degradation;

And by the fourth, one is then freed from the sins of minor offences.

Again at dawn, one should smear the Lord of Gods with fragrant sandalpaste,

And having adorned [him] according to rule with garments, ornaments, and garlands,

One should worship him richly with offerings according to one's ability.

Having waved lights before the Lord of Gods, consecrated rice grains,

Mixed with curd, sugar candy, and clarified butter in golden cooking-pots,

Together with pieces of coconut and ginger shreds,

Having carried [them] three times around the temple, one should bring them near the deity,

And set them down in rows before [him], provided with perfumes, flowers, and unbroken rice grains:

"You are the sustenance of all beings, the progenitor, O Lord of the universe;

These rice grains are indeed full of you, engendered by you alone, O Lord!

O you who assumed an appropriate form to show grace to the world,

Accept these that are prepared for your delight, O Supreme Lord!

When you are pleased, the whole world will thrive through this;

The svāhā, svadhā, and vaṣaṭ utterances of the gods

Will become nourishing, and by them alone the world is nourished.

Protect all the world, O Jagannātha, which consists of you, moving and unmoving!"

Having thus prayed to the Lord of Gods, one should offer the sheaves of rice,

And confectionery and foods made from them, and fragrant pots of curd

Endowed with camphor, sugar candy, and black-pepper powder, one should offer.

One should worship with devotion the brahmins standing before the God of Gods;

One should give to them with devotion that rice and other things, regarding them as the Lord.

In a previous kalpa, O brahmins, Kaśyapa

Having created creation, celebrated this great festival for the pleasure of the Lord.

Those who behold this festival instituted by Kaśyapa,

Fulfilled in all desires at all times, O brahmins, do not grieve;

Dwelling together with the gods, they attain liberation at the end of the kalpa.

The consecration of the kitchen and the consecration of the fire—

Here too, O sages, one should perform the vaiśvadeva day by day.

In the fire consecrated by ritual establishment, for the Lord's consumption, Ramā,

Assuming a divine form while remaining invisible, prepares the cooking every day.

In this most sacred festival of the Supreme Self,

Gifts such as the tulāpuruṣa become multiplied ten million upon ten million times.

Bathing, giving, austerity, oblation, scriptural recitation, and water-offering to the ancestors—

Everything indeed attains imperishability during the festival of the northern solstice.

Thus ends the forty-second chapter, named 'Description of the Rule for the Capricorn Transit', in the Glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, in the collection of eighty-one thousand verses, in the Second, the Vaiṣṇava Section, in the Māhātmya of the Sacred Field of Puruṣottama.