Skandapurana 5.101

Sūta said: / Having thus stayed that night there, that best of the Raghus, / attended upon with true devotion by all those best of monkeys,

then, when dawn was clear and the disc of the sun had risen, / performed his morning rites and then summoned the Puṣpaka [vimāna].

With Sugrīva, Suṣeṇa, Tāra, Kumuda, / Aṅgada, and Kuṇḍa, and the wise son of the Wind,

with Gavākṣa, Nala, and likewise Jāmbavān— / together with these ten monkeys he mounted the Puṣpaka.

Then Rāghava set out in due time towards Laṅkā / in that very vimāna, swift as thought and of brilliant radiance.

That very moment he reached the great city called Laṅkā, / looking upon those regions where the battle had taken place in the past.

Then Vibhīṣaṇa, seeing the brilliance arising from the Puṣpaka / and knowing that Rāma had arrived, went forward rejoiced, / together with all his ministers, as well as his servants and sons.

Then, seeing Lord Rāma from far off, Vibhīṣaṇa / fell like a rod upon the ground, uttering cries of victory.

Affectionately embracing Vibhīṣaṇa who had approached thus, / he then entered that Laṅkā together with him.

Reaching the palace of Vibhīṣaṇa, he sat down there upon an auspicious lion-throne, / surrounded on all sides by those monkeys.

Then Vibhīṣaṇa presented everything to him: / his kingdom, sons, wife, and whatever else [he possessed].

Then, standing with folded hands, he said out of humility: / “Let a command be given, O Lord! Tell me what duty I shall perform.

Why have you arrived all of a sudden? Tell me, O Lord. / Why has that son of Sumitrā not come with you, nor Jānakī?”

Sūta said: / Having related everything to him in a choked voice, / his face covered with a flood of tears, sighing again and again,

the joy of the Raghus then spoke truth beneficial to Vibhīṣaṇa, / comforting him who was also tormented by grief:

“Having renounced the kingdom now, O best of Rākṣasas, / I shall swiftly go to heaven, where Lakṣmaṇa is residing.

Bereft of him, my great-souled kin, I have no desire / to stay in the mortal world for even a moment, O tiger among Rākṣasas.

I have come to you, Vibhīṣaṇa, to impart instruction; / therefore listen attentively and carry it out.

This fortune arising from kingship engenders intoxication in men / of small intellect, like liquor; therefore you must not indulge in it.

All the immortals, headed by Śakra, must always be worshipped by you, / and revered, so that your rule becomes ever permanent.

May my word be true; it is for this that I have come. / Even though he had obtained the sovereignty of the kingdom, your mighty brother

suddenly met his destruction; therefore the gods must always be revered. / If any human being should happen to arrive here by any means, / all the night-wanderers must look upon him as my very own body.

Likewise, all night-wanderers must be restrained by you, Vibhīṣaṇa: / they must not cross over my bridge to go onto the earth’s surface.”

Vibhīṣaṇa said: / “Thus, O Lord, I will carry out your command without a doubt. / But once you have abandoned the mortal realm, my life will depart.

Therefore, O Lord, you ought to take me also there, / along with yourself, where your Lakṣmaṇa has already gone.”

Śrī Rāma said: / “Imperishable kingship has been ordained for you by me, O best of Rākṣasas; / therefore you ought not to make me a speaker of falsehood by any means.

Upon this bridge of mine I will establish an auspicious triad of Śaṃkara / for the sake of fame; it must always be worshipped by you, / offering [worship] with devotion as long as the moon, sun, and stars endure.”

Having spoken thus to Vibhīṣaṇa, the lord of Rākṣasas, / that best of the Raghus stayed there in Laṅkā for ten nights along with the monkeys,

recounting varied tales of the battle that had indeed been fought previously, / and viewing all the various locations of the battle,

praising those mighty champions among the Rākṣasas, / Kumbhakarṇa, Indrajit, and others, who had faced him in battle.

And then, when the eleventh day arrived, the delight of the Raghus, / having mounted that Puṣpaka [vimāna], set out towards his own city.

Accompanied by those monkeys, preceded by Vibhīṣaṇa, / he then installed Maheśvara at the end of the bridge.

And in the middle and also at the beginning, with a mind purified by faith, / having thus established three Rāmeśvara [liṅgas] there, Rāma,

having reached the causeway, set out toward his home. / Then he was addressed by Vibhīṣaṇa, bowing repeatedly:

Vibhīṣaṇa said: / By this causeway path, desiring to see Rāmeśvara, / men will come out of curiosity, endowed with faith.

O great king, the race of rākṣasas is considered most cruel. / Upon seeing a human approaching, a desire for flesh arises.

When some rākṣasa eats some person, / there will surely be a violation of my command, devoted to devotion though I am.

In the Kali age, kings and men will be poor; / they will [come] here out of greed for gold and for the darśana of the deity,

and they will always come, casting aside the fear caused by rākṣasas. / If someone among them suffers death from a rākṣasa,

then the fault arising from treason against my lord will fall upon me, O Lord. / Therefore, devise some means so that / the sin caused by violation of command may never arise for me, O Guru.

Having heard those words of his, that best of the Raghus, / saying, “So be it,” then readied his bow.

Then that best of the Raghus cut through that [causeway], which was the embodiment of his fame, in the middle / for an extent of ten yojanas with sharp arrows.

The peak where Śaṃkara had been installed by him himself— / that peak along with the liṅga fell into the water of the ocean.

Having thus rendered that path across the causeway impassable, / he then departed for home together with the monkeys and the rākṣasas.

Thus ends the one hundred and first chapter, named “Description of the Consecration of Rāmeśvara in the Middle of the Causeway by Śrī Rāma,” in the Māhātmya of the Hāṭakeśvara Kṣetra in the sixth section, the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, of the glorious Skandapurāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand verses.