Skandapurana 2.5.9: adhyāyaḥ 9

Brahmā said:

Declare to me in truth, O Lord, O God, the procedure for the food-offering.

How many types of food are desired, as well as condiments and the rest in full?

The Blessed Lord said:

Well asked by you, dear child! It is supremely pleasing to me.

I shall tell you the foods, drinks, condiments, and the rest in full.

First, a golden dish, or in its absence a silver one,

and in its absence, [one made of] palāśa leaves, broad and very beautiful.

Small bowls by the hundreds should be placed around the dish, O sinless one;

inside them, auspicious condiments made of various fruits should be placed.

Rice cooked in milk resembling the moon, mixed with sugar, in a dish,

cooked rice resembling the white water-lily, auspicious mung beans shining like glass,

enclosed by various condiments in three rows,

with lime juice, with camphor, and with fruits and roots.

And varieties should be prepared by the hundreds for my meal then:

auspicious grapes mixed together and prepared with mango and karamarda;

concoctions boiled with black pepper, long pepper, dry ginger, cardamom, and camphor,

broths should be prepared by the hundreds for my meal.

Likewise, sauces should be prepared, filling hundreds of cups,

endowed with the delight of diverse flowers, dear to me in the month of Sahas.

Round, attractive maṇḍaka cakes, uniform everywhere like a drop,

along with sugar and with boiled milk,

supplied in that good meal with cow's [milk] of honey color;

O dear child, in a radiant small bowl, having a golden luster,

well-scented ghee should be given with love for my meal;

there, brilliant with a wheat dish and with camphor.

Sauvāhlikas, pūrikās, [cakes] with a hundred perforations, rolled cakes,

apūpas, and milk sweets—one should prepare various kinds:

candies named maṇis and sūtras, mālatī-flower-like pastries,

charming parpaṭas and varpaṭas made from black gram and white gourd.

One should prepare delightful vaṭaka cakes of nine kinds in my month of Sahas.

In two ways, filled with mace and black pepper, auspicious in a small wooden vessel,

Provided with salt, and deep-fried in very pure oil;

Saffron-hued, devoid of oiliness, like wicked men bearing wounds.

Some accompanied by curds and milk, some prepared with tamarind and mango,

Some accompanied by grape juice, and likewise accompanied by sugarcane juice,

Steeped in mustard water, and others with white sugar;

With four kinds of other juices, vaṭakas are considered to be of nine varieties.

With broken pieces having the lustre of diamonds, chironji seeds, and dried dates,

With flakes of coconut, and accompanied by a hundred cloves,

Mixed with ghee, milk, white sugar, and the like, well stirred in a frying-pan,

Mixed with sugar and the like, delightful and crisp pheṇikās are made.

Cooked on frying-pans, flat cakes (polikās) are made round like the moon;

Modakas should be prepared there, others made of chironji seeds;

Others should be made accompanied by white sugar, and others prepared with milk;

Others with coconut fruits, and others made with tree resin;

Others auspicious with almonds, and with sesamum seeds and poppy seeds.

Such modakas and other [sweets] one should have made for my satisfaction.

Elephant-foot yam, cotton-tree root, fresh ginger, and karamarda fruit,

Orange, tamarind, and kakkola fruit,

Lime from Tripura, auspicious neem fruit, lotus root,

Tinduka fruit, clove, wood-apple, tilaka, luti,

Bark, bamboo shoots, and likewise kāyaphala and bala,

Grape, mango, delightful breadfruit,

Myrobalan, oyster pearl-fruit, and hog plum,

Plantain, long pepper, and charming black pepper,

Well-pierced with pure mustard oil and with salt,

Likewise seasoned with mustard seed, kept in a jar for three years:

Such varieties of condiments, O giver of honor,

Should be prepared in the month of Saha, bringing delight to me.

If one lacks the means for such a feast,

Then this should be done by him; hear from me in brief:

One laḍḍūka, one ghṛtapūra, two phenas, and three kokarasas;

One who offers sixteen maṇḍakas steeped in ghee and eight vaṭas will not see hell.

An āḍhaka of milk that has stood for a long time, sixteen palas of sugar shining like the moon,

A pala of clarified butter, a pala of honey, two karṣas of black pepper, half a pala of dried ginger, or half a pala among the four—

Rubbed on a fine cloth by a woman with gentle hands, placed in a vessel made white with camphor dust:

Whoever prepares this auspicious, delicious dish—to that mortal I grant all desires.

Thus ends the ninth chapter, titled 'The Description of the Rules for Food Offerings' in the praise of the month of Mārgaśīrṣa, in the dialogue between Brahmā and Viṣṇu, in the second section, the Vaiṣṇavakhaṇḍa, of the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.