Skandapurana 4.66.47

Agastya said:
What kinds of jewels, and how many, O six-faced one,
did he take when setting out? Tell me as I ask. / 45
Skanda said:
Measures of pearls totaling twenty million,
as well as a hundred measures of floating diamonds; / 46
more than nine hundred thousand brilliant six-sided gems, O brahmin,
and two hundred thousand measures of spotless, radiant beryls; / 47
know that there were fifty million measures of rubies, O sage,
and nine hundred thousand measures of topazes; / 48
likewise a hundred thousand measures of hessonite gems, O sage,
and five million measures of sapphires; / 49
ten million measures of emerald gems,
and ninety million measures of pure coral gems. / 50
And the count of ornaments for the eight limbs cannot be made,
nor of the diverse and soft garments, O sage. / 51
Numerous chowries, fragrant articles,
and countless gold, male and female slaves, O sage— / 52
taking all of these, the lord of mountains set out;
arriving at the bank of the Varaṇā, he looked upon Kāśī from afar: / 53
its entire ground inlaid with masses of diverse gems;
its sky filled with the radiance of rubies upon various palaces; / 54
illuminating the regions of the sky with various golden pitchers atop mansions;
a heavenly realm with crowds of triumphant banners; / 55
a wonderful pleasure-house even for the eight great supernatural powers;
surpassing the forest of wishing trees with groves yielding all fruits. / 56
Thus, beholding the prosperity of Kāśī, he was ashamed;
and the lord of mountains spoke this word in his mind: / 57
“In palaces, highways, ramparts, houses,
picturesque gateways, doors, and embankments, / 58
intertwined with the webs of light of pearls, rubies, and jewels
bursting with lovely splendor, as this is seen / 59

in the space between heaven and earth—so do I realize [its splendor].
Such an abundance of wealth does not exist even in the house of Kuvera, / 60
nor even in the realm of Vaikuṇṭha—what mention of any other here?”
While that king of mountains was considering this in his mind, / 61
a certain wanderer came into his field of vision;
calling him with great respect, the lord of mountains asked him: / 62
Himavat said:
“Ho, best of wanderers, take this seat here;
relate the news of your city. What is unprecedented here, O traveler? / 63
Who is the presiding ruler here now? What are the doings of that ruler?
If you know all that, tell me here before me.” / 64
Having heard the speech of that king of mountains,
that wanderer, O sage, began to relate: / 65
The wanderer said:
“I will tell you, O king of kings; listen to everything you have asked me.
Only five or six days have passed, O giver of honor, / 66
since the lord of the universe, the husband of the mountain king’s daughter,
arrived from the charming Mandara mountain, Divodāsa having gone to heaven. / 67
He who is indeed the ruler of the universe is the omnipresent ruler here—
all-seeing, all-granting Śarva. How is he not known, O lord? / 68
I think you are like a stone, even harder of mind than a stone,
since you do not know the lord of the universe, the husband of Girijā, in Kāśī! / 69
Though stone-hard by nature, Himavat the mountain is superior,
who pleased the lord of the universe by the gift of his daughter dearer than life. / 70
Though possessing natural hardness, the father of Gaurī became venerable,
having worshipped Śambhu with his daughter as a garland for the teacher of the world. / 71
Who knows the conduct of that ruler who is to be known through the Vedas?
I know this only a little: this universe is his doing. / 72
The ruler has been declared by me, as well as the ruler’s deed.
Now hear what you asked regarding the unprecedented; I shall tell it: / 73
Presently that husband of Umā is in the auspicious abode of Jyeṣṭheśvara…”

having reached Kāśī, he might dwell there with joy as the companion of the daughter of the Mountain King.” / Skanda said: / “Whenever that traveler made manifest the nectar of Girijā’s sweet names and syllables, the king of mountains rejoiced at every moment. / One who has drunk here on the surface of the earth the nectar of the name of Umā, / O pot-born [sage], shall never drink breast milk from a mother. / He who remembers day and night the two-syllable mantra ‘Umā’— / even if he has committed sin, Citragupta does not remember him, O twice-born one. / Again, rejoiced, Himavat listened to the words spoken by the pilgrim. / The pilgrim said: / ‘O King, for the sake of Viśveśvara, who grants nirvāṇa to mortals, an exquisite temple / is being built by Viśvakarman; / such an unprecedented thing I have not even heard with my ears! / In which the walls of the temple are constructed all around from gems and rubies / with rods of surpassing brilliance; / in which there are one hundred and twelve radiant pillars, / fashioned as eight by eight, as it were, to uphold each world. / Whatever beauty there is in all the fourteen worlds all around, / in that temple it is a hundred crore times greater here. / And the base-stones of the pillars, made of moonstones— / the great mass of their luster is held firm by columns composed of variegated gems. / Where statues made of rubies and sapphires / constantly perform the wave-offering of lights day and night with jewel lamps; / on the polished lotus-slab floor made of glistening crystal, / countless variegated shapes of gems all around, / with colors of reddish, yellow, madder, blue, and dappled, / appear as if painted in a picture by a painter. / The rows of ruby pillars are seen as captivating to the gaze, / like sprouts of the glory of liberation in his own sacred field, the Avimukta. / Where the attendants, having brought great heaps of gems from all oceans, / piled them into heaps resembling mountain peaks;

where all the heaps of jewels, collected by the attendants / from the depths of Pātāla, from the treasure-house of the Nāgas, were made into mountains; / where the devotee of Śiva himself, Rāvaṇa, son of Pulastya, brought from the peak of his mountain / crores of gold-crested peaks by means of rakshasas; / hearing of the temple’s construction, devotees situated on other continents, / O King, brought countless rubies, alas! / Where the wishing-jewel itself, night and day, for the work / of Viśvakarman, presents various desired gems; / and where the wish-fulfilling trees, endowed with perpetual devotion, / unfurl no small number of multicolored banners; / where the oceans constantly, day after day, / bathe [him] with pitchers filled with the five nectars: curd, milk, cane-juice, and clarified butter; / where the wish-granting cow daily with devotion herself bathes Viśveśa / in the form of a liṅga with a stream of honey and with her own milk; / and whom the Malaya mountain serves with sandalwood juices, / [and] the plantain tree worships with masses of camphor with devotion. / Where such unprecedented wonders take place daily in Śaṃkara’s abode, / how do you, hard-hearted one, not know that beloved of Umā?’ / Thus, having seen that prosperity of his son-in-law, the king of mountains / was utterly overwhelmed with shame, O pot-born [sage]. / Then, having given a reward to that pilgrim, / after the pilgrim had left, the mountain king became plunged in thought once more. / His eyes wide with amazement, he spoke thus only in his mind: / ‘Oh, this auspicious thing has happened, which was heard through you, bringing bliss! / While such an abundance of wealth is heard and seen here indeed / in the mansion of my son-in-law, the sport of the Lord of the Three Worlds, / therefore the trifling gift brought by me for my daughter / to please my son-in-law appears completely insignificant to me! / I used to think of him just as he was seen by me previously:

whose only wealth is an old bull, who turns his face away from all ritual acts! / No one knows him, nor does he ever have a lineage; / he does not have even one name, nor can the country he belongs to be determined. / What is his conduct, what is his practice? He is the Lord merely in name; / nothing indicative of lordship is observed in him! / Oh, yet this very one gives the wealth of nirvāṇa even to an impoverished wretch; / being gracious, he renders all actions fruitful. / Known through the Vedas, omniscient, he whose progeny is the entire world— / whom no one at all knows in the beginning of the Vedas, he indeed is to be known through the Vedas! / He who seems ignorant and ever unknown, this very one is omniscient; / he whose single name no man can know— / surely the names of all beings are his names! / He indeed belongs to all lands and bestows all perfections upon all. / Whose country was unknown, who turned away from worldly vocation, / whom formerly I, hard of intellect, regarded as devoid of proper conduct— / from whom alone the Śruti and Smṛti derive all proper conduct! / Whom I certainly knew as Lord in name alone, / he is the Lord directly; he is the one who indicates lordship in others! / The repository of all qualities, yet transcending qualities, both higher and lower, / he is here both near and far, higher than the highest! / I am the lord of mountains; he is Viśvanātha, the lord of Umā. / I possess measured wealth; he has immeasurable riches! / Therefore, with this paltry present, I shall not / see him now; I shall do so sometime after returning!’ / Having decided thus in mind at evening, that lord of mountains, / summoning all his mountain attendants of great might, / gave this command: ‘All of you are exceedingly strong; / carry out one command of mine: before the sun rises, / quickly construct a temple of Śiva here, / by doing which I shall have achieved my goal in this world and the next!’”

“Whoever comes here to Kāśī and builds a single abode for Śiva, / by him the entire three worlds are truly provided with an abode. / By him great gifts have been duly given, / on auspicious occasions, to worthy recipients, with daughter[s], and with abundant faith. / Whoever, according to the measure of his wealth, from riches earned by righteousness, / has built a great abode for Śambhu, Lakṣmī will never abandon him. / He has performed austerities, even subsisting on withered leaves, / who, having reached Vārāṇasī, has built an abode for Śiva. / He has offered all the great sacrifices rich in every excellence, / who has built an abode for the God of gods in the Forest of Bliss.” / Thus having heard his command, his followers then / built an excellent temple before the night had passed away. / Meanwhile, the Śaileśvara liṅga was installed by the King of Mountains, / with a pavilion illumined by the glittering radiance of moonstone gems. / And he had an inscription engraved, with a garland of laudatory letters, / proclaiming his own supreme elevation surpassing even all mountains. / Then, at sunrise, having bathed in the pool of the Pañcanada, / the King of Mountains bowed to and worshipped the Lord of Time (Kālarāja), / and leaving a heap [of treasures] there, went swiftly all around / to his own abode, accompanied by all his mountaineers. / Then in the morning, seeing that lovely temple on the auspicious bank of the Varaṇā, / the two gaṇas, Huṇḍa and Muṇḍa, delighted, / came to inform the God who had not seen it before. / Seeing Mahādeva holding a mirror shown by Umā, / the two gaṇas bowed down on the ground like a stick with palms joined. / Having received permission by a brow's flick, they made this report: / “O God of gods, we do not know by what person of firm devotion / an exceedingly beautiful temple has been built on the bank of the Varaṇā. / It was not seen by the two of us until evening, [yet] was seen this very morning, O Lord!” / Hearing what was spoken by the gaṇas, Īśāna said to the daughter of the King of Mountains:

He who knows the whole matter, omniscient, spoke as if unknowing: / “O daughter of the Mountain King, let us go to see that temple.” / Having spoken thus, the Lord went forth with the Daughter of the Mountain and his gaṇas, O sage, / having mounted a great chariot, eager to see the temple. / Then Giriśa beheld the temple on the bank of the Varaṇā, / exceedingly delightful in design, built in the span of a single night. / Having descended from the chariot, he entered the sanctum sanctorum / and saw the great liṅga made of moonstone, / blazing with radiance, resembling the sprout of the glory of liberation, / producing purity of vision and cutting off rebirth. / While Īśvara was wishing to know, “By whom was this liṅga installed?”, / he saw before him the inscription indicating its maker. / Having read it slightly, as it were, the Destroyer of Kāma in his mind / said: “O Goddess, by good fortune! Behold your father's work!” / Hearing this, Umā was overjoyed, bearing on her limbs / the beauty of a kadamba flower, like the radiance of sprouts of joy. / Then the goddess made a petition to the God, having bowed at his feet: / “O Lord, you must dwell in this supreme liṅga day and night. / Whoever are devotees of this liṅga, Śaileśa the Great Lord, / to them you must grant great prosperity here and in the hereafter.” / Having said “So be it,” the God again spoke to that Pārvatī: / “By those who have bathed in the Varaṇā and worshipped Śaileśa, / and having gratified the ancestors with joy and given gifts according to their capacity, / there is no return for them here on the path of saṃsāra. / I shall dwell perpetually in the Śaileśvara great liṅga, O auspicious one; / I shall grant supreme liberation to the people who worship this liṅga. / Those who see Śaileśvara on the auspicious bank of the Varaṇā, / living in Kāśī, sorrow will not overcome them.” / A boon was also given by Umā at that liṅga, O Pot-born [Agastya]: / “Those who are devotees of Śaileśvara are my sons, without a doubt.”