Skanda Purana 3.1.17

Śrī Sūta said:

Again, O lords of sages, Kakṣīvat spoke to his father:

“Just as I was sent here now by the guru Udaṅka,

I have come to this Agasti sacred ford, O best of sages,

impelled by the guru for the accomplishment of the marriage with Svanaya's daughter.

Here I stayed, performing the means instructed by him.

At the end of three years, when I had accomplished the means for marriage,

Svanaya arrived by chance right here while I was staying.

And he approached me and spoke these words: ‘I will give you my maiden daughter.’

Then, at my request, this king has summoned you.”

Having said this to his father, Kakṣīvat fell silent.

Then Sudarśana, that foremost of brahmins, the family priest of Svanaya,

went into the presence of the king to report to Svanaya.

Having approached King Svanaya, that Sudarśana

reported the arrival of that sage Dīrghatamas.

Hearing from the family priest that the sage had arrived,

the king Svanaya then went out from his tent in haste to see him.

King Svanaya saw that best of seers with his son

on the bank of the Agastya-tīrtha, just as the king of gods [beholds] Brahmā.

He paid homage to the feet of Dīrghatamas, which bring auspiciousness to the worlds.

Having raised up the king, O brahmins, the sage Dīrghatamas then

pronounced a blessing upon King Svanaya.

Meanwhile, the great seer Udaṅka also arrived

surrounded by a host of disciples to bathe at Dhanuṣkoṭi at the Bridge of Rāma.

The host of sages with him numbered a hundred thousand, O lord of sages;

the sage Udaṅka arrived to bathe at this Agastya-tīrtha.

Seeing Udaṅka arrive, Kakṣīvat prostrated himself before him.

Then the brahmin guru bestowed a blessing upon his disciple.

Then the brahmin Dīrghatamas inquired after that great sage Udaṅka's well-being,

and he too [inquired after] that eminent sage.

Both those tigers among sages, renowned throughout all the worlds,

spoke there narratives that destroy sin.

Then the king also bowed down to Udaṅka, the lord of sages,

Then King Svanaya, delighted, spoke there [these] words

to the sage Dīrghatamas: "Let the marriage be performed!"

The sage Dīrghatamas also said then, "So be it!

Let it be performed tomorrow itself, O wise king, at an auspicious hour.

Let the wedding be held right here on Mount Gandhamādana.

Therefore, quickly bring the maiden and the women's quarters here."

Addressed thus, King Svanaya went to his tent pavilion,

and summoning a hundred elderly attendants,

he sent them to fetch the maiden and the women's quarters.

Those chief attendants, urged by Svanaya,

mounted steeds swift as thought and went to Madhurā.

Having quickly reached the women's quarters and related everything that had happened,

they returned accompanied by the maiden and the inner court.

Then on the next auspicious day, the seer Dīrghatamas

duly performed for his son the rites beginning with the gift of a cow.

When the rites beginning with the gift of a cow were completed, Kakṣīvant,

in order to marry the king's daughter together with his father and guru,

mounted an elephant with four tusks and a huge body, entirely white in all its limbs;

filled with joy like a second king of gods,

fulfilling the desire of the lovely maiden,

accompanied by many thousands of brahmins chanting blessings,

having its gateway adorned with archways—to the tent pavilion of the royal seer,

having performed the auspicious ceremonies, the delighted Kakṣīvant went.

Then Svanaya's daughter, adorned with auspicious ornaments,

seated on that huge, four-tusked white elephant,

seeing Kakṣīvant approaching, eager for his marriage,

rejoiced: "The vow undertaken for my sake has now been fulfilled!"

Kakṣīvant, accompanied by Dīrghatamas and also by Udaṅka,

gradually reached the outer curtain gate of the king.

Then Svanaya, seeing that Kakṣīvant had arrived,

went out to welcome him together with his priest Sudarśana.

Then the female attendants of the maiden

performed the waving-light ceremony for the bridegroom Kakṣīvant with silver and golden vessels.

Welcomed by Svanaya and surrounded by brahmins,

the glorious Kakṣīvant entered the royal abode.

Then, with deference, the king led to his dwelling the sage Dīrghatamas,

together with the bridegroom and with Udaṅka.

The king presented water for hospitality to Udaṅka and Dīrghatamas.

Inside the pavilion adorned with cloths, fly-whisks, and archways,

the bridegroom, Dīrghatamas, and the other sages with Udaṅka,

and Svanaya together with his ministers and family priest sat down.

Then his daughter, that maiden with lovely hair and a charming form,

adorned with ornaments on her limbs, wearing heavenly garments, auspicious,

with lips red as bimba fruits, beautiful in all her limbs, with plump and firm breasts,

they brought into the pavilion crowded with great people.

Then that auspicious, charming maiden placed upon the bridegroom's neck

a garland made of campaka flowers amidst the gathering.

Then Udaṅka, having stepped forward and established the fire in that place,

having performed [the rites] up to the consecration of the fire and the offering of parched grain,

had the bridegroom take the hand of that maiden;

Udaṅka had all the rituals performed there.

Then the brahmins offered blessings to the bride and bridegroom.

Then King Svanaya, O brahmins, [honored] the bridegroom, the sage Dīrghatamas,

Udaṅka, and the parties of both the bridegroom and himself;

he fed three hundred thousand brahmins with foods of six flavors.

Then he honored them manifoldly with betel and other gifts.

Then, having taken leave of the best of sages, Udaṅka went to his hermitage,

and all the other brahmins then departed to their own lands.

When the marriage of Kakṣīvant and the princess was thus accomplished,

that excellent elephant entered the Agastya sacred ford and vanished.

Then, O brahmins, Dīrghatamas, together with his son and daughter-in-law,

having bathed in Agastya's great sacred ford, which grants desires,

and praising that sacred ford, renowned throughout all the worlds,

set his mind on returning to his own sacred hermitage, the Vedāraṇya.

The best of sages took leave of the king who had come there.

King Svanaya too, filled with joy, then bestowed upon his daughter

a hundred thousand pieces of gold as her bridal property at that time.

He gave a thousand cows and a thousand female servants;

and, loving his daughter, he also gave five hundred villages.

He gave ten thousand divine garments and a hundred treasure-boxes of ornaments,

and out of affection for his daughter he gave a thousand necklaces.

Taking all this, the sage, accompanied by his son and daughter-in-law,

permitted by the king, went to the forest of the Vedas.

Having reached the Vedāraṇya, the sage Dīrghatamas then

dwelt happily, O brahmins, together with his son and daughter-in-law.

Serving the Lord of the Vedāraṇya, who grants the fruits of enjoyment and liberation,

Kakṣīvat also lived for a long time with his wife.

The royal seer Svanaya too, having bathed in the [ford] made by the jar-born [Agastya],

at that highly sacred ford, accompanied by all his soldiers,

took his royal household and departed for his own city, rejoiced.

Thus, through the māhātmya of Agastya's sacred ford,

a marriage difficult for anyone else to obtain took place for the sage Kakṣīvat, O brahmins.

Śrī Sūta said:

This holy narrative, O best of sages, is established in the Vedas;

it brings wealth, brings fame, grants long life, and increases renown and good fortune.

It should by all means be heard and recited by human beings, O twice-born ones.

For those who recite and hear this ancient narrative,

neither here nor in the hereafter shall there be affliction or poverty.

Thus ends the seventeenth chapter, named 'The Description of the Accomplishment of Kakṣīvat’s Marriage', in the Setumāhātmya of the Brahmakhaṇḍa, in the third section of the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.