Skandapurana 2.4.17

Nārada said:

Having worshipped me according to rule, full of great devotion,

he then spoke words to me with a smile and with affection, O king:

“From where have you come, O holy one? Has anything been seen by you, O master?

Instruct me, O sage, concerning the purpose for which you have arrived here.”

Nārada said:

“I went to the peak of Kailāsa of my own accord, O lord of Daityas;

there I saw Śaṃkara seated together with Umā.”

In a great grove of wish-fulfilling trees extending ten thousand yojanas,

abounding with hundreds of wish-granting cows, and brilliantly illuminated by wish-fulfilling gems.

Seeing that great wonder, astonishment arose in me then:

‘Could such opulence exist anywhere in the three worlds, or not?’

Then, O king of Daityas, your opulence too was remembered by me;

desiring to see it, I have come here to your presence.

Looking upon this opulence of yours, surely devoid of that jewel among women,

I judge that none other than Śiva in the three worlds possesses true opulence.

Although apsarases, Nāga maidens, and others remain subject to you,

even so, they are surely not equal to Pārvatī in beauty.

The four-faced [Brahmā], drowned in the ocean of her loveliness,

abandoned his own steadfastness of old; what other woman can be compared to her?

Even the enemy of Madana, though free from passion, by his own divine play

roamed formerly in the deep forest of beauty with her in the form of a saphara fish.

Looking again and again at her beauty during creation, even the Creator

created the apsarases; yet not one among them was equal to her.

Therefore, that opulence belongs to him who enjoys the jewel among women; it is superior;

it is not so for you, O king of Daityas, though you are the master of all jewels.”

Having spoken thus, when he had taken his leave and departed, the king of Daityas,

from hearing of her beauty, became afflicted with the fever of love.

Then, deluded by the illusion of Viṣṇu, he dispatched

the son of Siṃhikā as a messenger to Tryambaka.

Rāhu went to Kailāsa, causing the luster of the waxing moon

to have the luster of the waning moon by the darkness born of his own limbs.

Announced then to the Lord by Nandin, he entered;

impelled by a signal from Tryambaka's creeper-like eyebrow, he spoke these words:

Rāhu said:

“Of the master of the three worlds, the lord served by gods and serpents,

the ruler of all jewels, hear the command, O bull-bannered god!

To you, who constantly dwell in the cremation ground, who carry a load of bones,

and who are sky-clad, how is the auspicious daughter of Himavat suitable as a wife?

I am the supreme lord of jewels, and she is called the jewel among women;

therefore, she is fit for me alone, not at all for you who eat begged food!”

Nārada said:

Even as Rāhu was speaking thus, from between the eyebrows of the trident-bearer

arose a fierce person, roaring like a violent thunderbolt,

lion-faced, with a lolling tongue, having blazing eyes, huge,

with hair standing upright and an emaciated body, like another Nṛsiṃha.

Seeing him coming to devour him, Rāhu, overwhelmed with fear,

ran swiftly outside, and he seized him.

And that Rāhu, O mighty-armed one, with a voice deep as a thundercloud,

said: “O God of gods, protect me, who have sought refuge!

O Mahādeva, he has come forward to devour me, a brahmin!”

Hearing the word of the brahmin, Mahādeva then said:

“This one must not be killed, because he is a messenger subject to another.”

Hearing “Release [him]!” that person released Rāhu in the sky.

Having released Rāhu, that person then petitioned Rudra:

The person said:

“Hunger torments me exceedingly, and I am completely wasted with hunger.

What shall I eat, O Lord of gods? Command me, O Master!”

Īśvara said:

“Quickly eat the flesh of your own hands and feet!”

Nārada said:

Ordered thus by Śiva, that person ate his own

flesh of his hands and feet, so that only his head remained.

Seeing that only his head remained, Śiva, exceedingly pleased then,

said to the person of dreadful deeds, filled with wonder:

Īśvara said:

“Be named Kīrtimukha, always situated at my door;

those who do not perform your worship do not please me at all!”
Nārada said:

From that time forth, Kīrtimukha remained at the door of the god.

For those who do not worship him first, worship becomes in vain. (31)

The Rāhu who was released by him also [went] to that Barbaric place.

Therefore, he became known on earth as ‘born of Barbara’. (32)

Then that Rāhu, considering himself to have been born anew in that place,

approached Jalandhara and recounted that entire encounter. (33)

Thus ends the seventeenth chapter, titled “Account of the Messenger’s Words,” in the Jalandhara story, in the Māhātmya of the Month of Kārttika, in the second section, the Vaiṣṇavakhaṇḍa, of the glorious Skandamahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses. (17)

[Kīrtimukha in sculptural art]