Skandapurana 2.4.23

Nārada said:

From the seeds scattered there, three flora arose:

the dhātrī, the mālatī, and the tulasī, O best of kings.

The dhātrī is known to have arisen from Dhātrī; the mālatī is known to have arisen from Mā;

and the tulasī arose from Gaurī—having the qualities of tamas, sattva, and rajas.

Seeing the two plants having assumed female forms then, O king,

Viṣṇu rose up in agitation, bewildered by the excellence of Vṛndā's beauty. // 3

Seeing them, he begged out of delusion, with a mind attached to desire;

and both Tulasī and Dhātrī looked at him with passionate love. // 4

And the seed which Lakṣmī had formerly given purely out of jealousy,

from that, the woman born of it became intent on jealousy toward him. // 5

Therefore she obtained the name Barbarī, which is lowly and despised;

whereas Dhātrī and Tulasī, out of love for him, always bestow delight upon him. // 6

Then, having forgotten his sorrow, Viṣṇu, accompanied by the two of them,

went to Vaikuṇṭha, overjoyed, saluted by all the gods. // 7

Therefore, worship of Viṣṇu is prescribed at the conclusion of the Kārtika vow,

at the base of the Tulasī plant, since she is remembered as giving him delight. // 8

In whose house a grove of Tulasī stands, O king,

that house has the nature of a sacred ford; the servants of Yama do not come [there]. // 9

A Tulasī grove always removes all sins and grants desires;

the excellent men who plant it do not see the son of the Sun. // 10

The sight of the Narmadā, ritual ablution in the Gaṅgā,

and contact with a Tulasī grove—these three are remembered as entirely equal. // 11

By planting, tending, watering, seeing, and touching,

Tulasī burns away the sin of human beings accumulated through speech, mind, and body. // 12

He who performs the worship of Hari and Hara with flower-clusters of Tulasī

does not enter a womb; he partakes of liberation, no doubt. // 13

Sacred fords such as Puṣkara, and rivers such as the Gaṅgā,

and gods such as Vāsudeva reside in a Tulasī leaf. // 14

He who gives up his vital breaths accompanied by a Tulasī flower-cluster,

even Yama is unable to gaze upon him, though he be joined with hundreds of sins. // 15

He attains unity with Viṣṇu; truly, truly, O best of kings!

The man who wears sandalwood paste made from Tulasī wood,

sin does not touch his body, even if it is committed here. // 16

Wherever the shade of a Tulasī grove may be, O king,

there a śrāddha should be performed; what is given to the ancestors becomes imperishable. // 17

When a man bathes with waters mixed with Dhātrī fruits

and mingled with Tulasī leaves, for him the fruit is considered that of a ritual ablution in the Gaṅgā. // 18

If a man performs the worship of the gods with Dhātrī leaves and fruits,

he obtains the fruit of worshiping with heaps of gold, gems, and pearls. // 19

All the sacred fords, sages, gods, and sacrifices in Kārtika

constantly resort to Dhātrī and abide [in her] when the sun is in Libra. // 20

A man who plucks a Tulasī leaf or a Dhātrī leaf on the twelfth lunar day

in Kārtika goes to the most despicable hells. // 21

Even the four-faced god [Brahmā] would not be able

to describe the māhātmya of Dhātrī and Tulasī, nor of the god who bears the Śārṅga bow [Viṣṇu]. // 22

He who hears the cause of the origin of Dhātrī and Tulasī, and he who recites it with devotion,

shaking off his sin, goes to heaven together with his ancestors seated on foremost aerial chariots. // 23

Thus ends the twenty-third chapter, named 'Description of the Origin of Dhātrī and Tulasī,' in the Māhātmya of the Month of Kārtika in the second [book], the Vaiṣṇavakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skanda Purāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand [verses]. // 23