Skandapurana 3.1.32

Glorious Sūta said:

Once again I shall proclaim the majesty of Dhanuṣkoṭi

out of regard for you, O dwellers of Naimiṣāraṇya.

A great king named Nanda, born in the lunar dynasty,

ruled this earth bounded by the oceans in accordance with dharma.

His son was known by the name Dharmagupta.

Placing the burden of protecting the kingdom upon his own son,

that Nanda, having conquered his senses and conquered his appetite, entered the forest of austerity.

When his father had gone to the forest of austerity, the king named Dharmagupta,

knowing righteousness and devoted to statecraft, protected the earth.

He worshiped with diverse sacrifices the gods led by Indra.

He gave wealth and many lands to brahmins.

While that king ruled, all were devoted to their own duties;

no afflictions arising from thieves and the like occurred under him.

Once, mounted on an excellent horse, this Dharmagupta,

eager with the passion for hunting, entered the forest, O best of brahmins.

In that forest whose quarters were filled with tamāla, tāla, hintāla, and kurava trees,

dreadful with lions and tigers, he roamed—

where the intermediate directions were filled with the buzzing of swarms of intoxicated bees,

and crowded with ponds full of beds of lotuses, kalhāras, kumudas, and blue water-lilies,

adorned with ascetics.

As King Dharmagupta wandered in that forest,

night fell, O brahmins, with its horizons shrouded in darkness.

The king too, disciplined and having performed the evening twilight worship,

chanted the Gāyatrī, the mother of the Vedas, there in the forest.

When, out of fear of lions, tigers, and other beasts, the prince mounted a certain tree,

a bear, tormented by fear of a lion, came there.

A forest-dwelling lion pursued that bear.

Chased by the lion, the bear climbed up the tree.

Having climbed that tree, the bear saw the lord of the earth,

the great-souled one of great strength and valor, stationed in the tree.

Seeing the king, this forest-dwelling bear spoke:

"Do not be afraid, O king of kings; we two will spend the night here.

Possessed of great strength, a massive body, and bristling with large fangs,

this exceedingly terrifying lion has arrived at the foot of the tree.

Do you sleep for half the night, protected by me first;

then protect me while I sleep for half the night, O highly intelligent one."

Accepting those words of his, when Nanda's son was asleep, the lion

spoke to the bear: "This king is asleep; let him be thrown down!"

The righteous bear said to that lion, O best of the twice-born:

"You do not know righteousness, O king of beasts, forest-dweller!

For betrayers of trust face great misery in the world;

the sin of those who harm a friend is not destroyed even by tens of thousands of sacrifices.

There may somehow be an expiation for sins such as the murder of a brahmin,

but the sin of those who betray the trusting is not wiped away in tens of millions of births.

I do not consider Mount Meru a great burden on earth, O lion;

I consider the betrayer of trust in this world to be the great burden."

When this was spoken by the bear, the lion then fell silent.

And when Dharmagupta awoke, the bear fell asleep in the tree.

Then the lion said to the king: "Throw this bear down to me!"

When this was spoken by the lion, the unhesitating king

flung onto the ground that bear whose head was resting in his lap.

While being thrown down by the king, holding on to the tree with its claws,

the bear, through the power of merit, did not fall to the surface of the earth.

Approaching the king, the bear spoke these words in anger:

"Assuming any form at will, O king, I was born in the lineage of Bhṛgu;

named Dhyānakāṣṭha, I took on the form of a bear.

Because you cast me off, sinless and asleep, O king,

therefore, by my curse, wander swiftly as a madman, O lord of the earth!"

Having thus cursed the king, the sage then spoke to the lion:

"You were formerly the great yakṣa Nṛsiṃha, a minister of Kubera.

Once, having gone to Mount Himavat in the company of your wife,

through ignorance you indulged joyfully in amorous sport near Gautama.

And Gautama, who had by chance stepped out from his leaf hut to gather sacrificial wood,

seeing you unclothed, pronounced a curse:"

"Because you stood naked today in my hermitage,

therefore, this very day you shall become a lion; of this there is no doubt."

Thus, by the curse of Gautama, you attained the state of a lion formerly.

You were formerly the yakṣa named Bhadra, the minister of Kubera.

Kubera is indeed virtuous in conduct, and so too are his servants.

Therefore, why do you seek to kill me, a seer dwelling in the forest?

All this I know through meditation, O king of beasts."

When this was spoken by Dhyānakāṣṭha, he quickly cast off the lion's nature

and assumed the divine form of a yakṣa, embodying the minister of Kubera.

With folded hands, bowing down, he spoke to the sage Dhyānakāṣṭha:

"Today I have come to know the entire previous account, O great sage.

At the time of the curse, Gautama also told me the end of the curse:

'When you have a conversation with Dhyānakāṣṭha in the form of a bear,

then, shaking off the state of a lion, you will attain your yakṣa form.'

Thus Gautama, the best of sages, spoke to me, O holy one.

Today, upon the destruction of my lionhood, I recognize you, O great sage,

named Dhyānakāṣṭha, pure, and capable of assuming any form at will."

Having spoken thus and bowed to Dhyānakāṣṭha, the king of yakṣas

mounted an excellent aerial chariot and departed for the city of Alakā.

When that lord of yakṣas had departed, the great sage Dhyānakāṣṭha,

whose movement was unhindered as he wished, went wherever he pleased over the earth.

When that sage Dhyānakāṣṭha, who could assume any form at will, had departed,

Dharmagupta, maddened by the sage's curse, went to the city.

Seeing that best of kings in a mad condition, the ministers

brought him into the presence of his father on the delightful bank of the Revā.

They reported to him the derangement of his son's mind.

Learning the news of his son, his father Nanda then,

taking his son, swiftly went near Jaimini.

He related the entire story of his son to him from the beginning:

"O venerable Jaimini, today my son has fallen into madness.

Tell me a means for the destruction of his madness, O great sage."

Thus questioned, Jaimini, the best of sages, meditated for a long time.

Having meditated for a very long time, he then spoke to King Nanda:

"Indeed, your son became mad through the curse of Dhyānakāṣṭha.

I will tell you the means for release from his curse.

On the bridge in the southern ocean, holy and destroying sin,

there is a most excellent sacred ford known as Dhanuṣkoṭi,

the purifier of the pure and the most auspicious of auspicious things,

attested by the Vedas, exceedingly holy, and purifying sins such as the killing of a brahmin.

Taking your son there today, O lord of the earth, bathe him.

His madness will surely vanish at that very moment; there is no doubt."

Addressed in this manner, Nanda bowed to Jaimini, the best of sages,

and then, taking his son, went to Dhanuṣkoṭi.

And there he bathed his son according to the prescribed rules.

From the mere ritual ablution, the son was instantly cured of his madness.

Nanda himself also bathed at Dhanuṣkoṭi with devotion.

Having stayed for one day, the father along with his son then

worshipped Rāmanātha, the embodiment of Śiva accompanied by Umā, the treasury of compassion.

Taking leave of his son, Nanda went to the forest for austerity.

When the father had departed, King Dharmagupta also, O twice-born ones,

gave abundant wealth with devotion to Rāmanātha.

He then gave wealth, grain, and fields to the brahmins.

Thereupon he departed along with his ministers to his own city.

He ruled the kingdom with righteousness, free of any thorn,

which had belonged to his fathers and grandfathers, O brahmins, being exceedingly virtuous.

Whatever men are seized by madness, epilepsy,

or evil spirits, O lords of brahmins, they too, by plunging here

at Dhanuṣkoṭi, become completely released; truly, truly do I say this.

Whoever, abandoning Dhanuṣkoṭi, should go to another sacred ford

abandons milk of a cow ready at hand and begs for the latex of the snuhī plant."

"Dhanuṣkoṭi! Dhanuṣkoṭi! Dhanuṣkoṭi!"—O twice-born,

those men who recite this three times in any reservoir of water,

and bathe, all those men shall indeed go to the abode of Brahmā.

Thus has been told to you, O brahmins, the auspicious tale of Dharmagupta,

by merely hearing which the murder of a brahmin is destroyed,

and other accumulations of sin, such as the theft of gold, are destroyed.

Thus ends the thirty-second chapter, titled "The Description of the Deliverance of Dharmagupta from Madness, in Praise of Dhanuṣkoṭi," in the Setumāhātmya, in the third [section, the] Brahmakhaṇḍa, in the Skandamahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.