Skandapurana 5.110

The seers said:
Tell in detail, O son of Sūta, all the lineages (gotras) of those brahmins / by whom the sacred fields of Śiva were brought there. // 1

By the brahmins born of which lineage was which sacred field obtained, / by the grace of Śaṃkara, when that time arrived? // 2

And how many lineages were established in the excellent city of Camatkārapura / by that deeply devoted Ānarta, O son of Sūta? // 3

You mentioned previously that having founded a city he gave it to the twice-born; / but their count was not given, so proclaim that. // 4

Sūta said:
Formerly, instruction was given by seventy-two lords among sages. / In the past, the ruler of Ānarta, severely afflicted with the disease of leprosy, / having gone to Śaṅkhatīrtha, bathed in haste. // 5

By that, the leprosy of that king instantly vanished, / through the māhātmya of that tīrtha, when he had become despondent regarding his body. // 6

Then, having become free from disease and filled with great joy, / he bowed repeatedly to those best among sages and said: // 7

'Gold, or elephants and horses, or even the entire kingdom / I shall give to you; therefore speak, O best of the twice-born! // 8

Whatever pleases whomsoever, however much, or anything else, O twice-born, / let grace be shown to me, wretched and bowed down [before you]!' // 9

The brahmins said:
'We are forest-dwelling twice-born observing the vow of non-possession, / washing our hands immediately [after receiving anything]; what have we to do with a kingdom or with wealth?' // 10

The king said:
'A sinner who, having received a favor, does not return / the favor to him, is called ungrateful. // 11

For the slayer of a brahmin, the drinker of liquor, the thief, and the rogue whose vows are broken, / expiation is prescribed by the virtuous; for the ungrateful, there is no expiation. // 12

Therefore, doing me a favor, speak something, O best of the twice-born, / by which I may attain freedom from debt, even if it cost my very life.' // 13

The sages said:
'This is true, O highly fortunate one, that for the ungrateful there is no expiation; / however, fault occurs there where the giver is full of desire. // 14

Where one who is free from desire acts to help others, O king of kings, / no fault whatsoever arises there in the least. // 15

Therefore go to your own kingdom and protect it according to your duty, / by which happiness is produced in this world and in the next.' // 16

Thus forbidden a thousand times by the brahmins, / he bowed deeply to them with difficulty and then went to his home. // 17

Going there, gladdened in heart, having worshiped beautiful Maheśvara / with songs, dances, musical instruments, and night-vigils, / he ruled the kingdom as before, having removed all thorns around him, // 18

pondering day and night constantly concerning the brahmins: / 'How can a return of favor to those lords of the twice-born come to be, / on my part, who gave this body of mine made new again?' // 19

Those best of sages also, possessing the power to roam the skies / by the power of austerity, went to various tīrthas with devotion. // 20

Having performed ritual ablution, silent recitation, and libation to the ancestors at them, / they returned to their own hermitage and attended to the maintenance of their lives. // 21

Other twice-born performed their daily duties right there; / while others, having traveled far and seen a charming tīrtha, // 22

and having stayed there for one night or two nights, returned home; / and yet others returned after three nights. // 23

In Vārāṇasī, or Prayāga, or Puṣkara, or Naimiṣa, / or Prabhāsa, or Kedāra, or anywhere else that was desired. // 24

Then once, on the full-moon day of Kārttika, all those best of the twice-born / went to the three Puṣkaras, having resolved: // 25

'We shall dwell there for five nights with concentrated minds; / therefore, protection of the fires and the wives must be maintained according to one's power.' // 26

When, having made an agreement, those best of the twice-born had thus departed, / it was known by the king that no [sage] was staying there. // 27

Among those foremost of sages living in the hermitage of the holy tīrtha, / [there was a maid] known as Damayantī, whose face was like the lunar disc. // 28

In secret he said to her: 'Go, O sweetly smiling woman, / into the sacred field of Hāṭakeśvara; my order is now firm. // 29

The wives of the pure-souled sages who dwell there— / give varied ornaments to them as they desire. // 30

Their husbands do not accept gifts from us / in any manner, O fair-hipped one, even though tempted repeatedly. // 31

For women, concern for ornaments is always very great; / eagerness and delight always arise from ornaments. // 32

Even an ornament made of clay, or made of wood and thread, / or made of lacquer and glass, a woman puts on. // 33

This alone could be the way to render a service to them, / O lotus-petal-eyed one; there is no other means whatsoever.' // 34

She, having agreed, saying 'So be it,' and taking various ornaments, / went with joy to that sacred field: // 35

Auspicious earrings made of gems and pearls, / necklaces shining like the moon, large anklets, // 36

and [ornaments] inlaid with sapphires, dark-blue lapis, cat's-eyes, / rubies, diamonds, and delightful pearls, // 37

[hair-ornaments for] hair, divine and auspicious bangles resembling Indra's rainbow, / and golden cords of pure breed, and girdles as well. // 38

Then, when the auspicious day of the awakening of Viṣṇu had arrived, / devoted to fasting, she bathed in a single body of water, // 39

placing on the shore a veritable mountain of great ornaments, / by whose fierce radiance the circle of the sky was pervaded. // 40

In the meantime, female ascetics arrived, filled with curiosity: / “What is that king’s wife like? What form does she have, and what ornaments?”

Then, seeing her adorned with divine ornaments, / possessing beautiful limbs, and seated in deep meditation, they felt astonishment in their minds:

“Blessed is this wife of the king, who is thus adorned with ornaments! / Damayantī is richly endowed with great beauty, marked with all auspicious marks.”

Coming to the end of her meditation and seeing the female ascetics, / Damayantī too bowed down to all of them in accordance with proper rule.

With folded hands, she spoke pleasing and charming words to them: / “This heap of ornaments was set apart by me for the Garuda-bannered [Viṣṇu] / today, having bathed and fasted on the day of Hari.

Therefore, let the female ascetics accept these varied ornaments / given by me with desire [to offer them]; may favor be shown to me.”

Then one among them said: “This pearl necklace is mine. / Give this one to me; I have no other desire, O beloved of the king!”

Then, smiling broadly and having washed her feet herself, / she gave her the pearl necklace along with divine garments, / the pearls of which were each equal to six māṣas and spotless.

O best of brahmins, just as stars shine in the autumn sky, / so another [woman], filled with rivalry, asked for an intensely bright necklace, / priceless and exceedingly delightful to the heart.

Then, taking it in her hand, she was giving the necklace to her, / when another woman, eager for adornment, seized that necklace.

Then the remaining female ascetics, eager for ornaments, / seized those ornaments themselves with rivalry, O brahmins.

When an ornament had been placed in another’s hand, another [woman] / pulled it away by force, having overpowered her thereafter.

The more the female ascetics took [the gifts], honoured with ornaments, / the more joy arose in the heart of Damayantī.

And she distributed others by hundreds and by thousands; / yet even then no satisfaction arose in them, O best of brahmins.

Then, when the ornaments had run out, that beloved of the king, / delighted, said to them all: “Let satisfaction be had!

I shall bring more again in the morning, without any doubt, / and other varied ones, whichever pleases each [of you].”

Then they all said: “Go, O beloved of the king; / you must come again, having brought ornaments!”

Thus addressed by them, the king’s beloved bowed down, / and, overjoyed, went quickly to her own city, O good brahmins.

The female ascetics too went home and, with rivalry, / placed the various garments and ornaments upon their bodies.

Except for a group of four female ascetics who held to their vows, / ornaments were taken by all the rest according to their desire.

Then, in the clear morning when the orb of the sun had risen, / once again that king’s wife brought ornaments and garments.

She gave to them in the very same way, and they took them in the very same way. / Thus, as she gave with devotion day after day,

a period of five nights passed, and those wives of the ascetics were satisfied; / but the queen felt no satiety, giving with profound devotion.

Then she heard that there were four female ascetics here who were completely free from desire, / wearing bark and antelope skins, who had not approached her, / nor, seeing the others adorned, had they shown any jealousy whatsoever.

Then that blameless woman went quickly to their presence, / having taken costly ornaments on the fifth day.

Then she said to them all: “May favor be shown! / Let these ornaments be accepted for adornment.”

The female ascetics said:

“We have no need for ornaments; we are adorned with bark garments. / Therefore go to your own palace; let it be given to suppliants.”

While they were speaking thus with her, O best of brahmins, / the four husbands arrived, each one separately to his own wife:

Śunaḥśepa, then Śākreya, Bauddha, and Dānta was the fourth. / Those four indeed came to their hermitage through the path of the sky.

All the rest, having suffered a loss of their power of movement, resorted to the path of the earth. / Then, seeing their hermitage adorned in a grotesque manner, / they said: “What is this? What is this? Why are the female ascetics disgraced?

By what sinner has this hermitage of ours been thus defiled / by giving ornaments and garments to the female ascetics?”

Their wives said: / “The one who is the wife of King Camatkāra, / by her were ornaments given to all of them.

That king's beloved also came to our house / to give ornaments indeed, but she was forbidden by us today.”

Sūta said: / Hearing that speech of theirs, they then became wild with rage, / and repeatedly addressed that king’s wife to pronounce a curse:

“Seventy-two of us went to Puṣkara to bathe / on the full moon day of Kārttika through the path of the sky, with the speed of mind and wind.

These four have arrived [first], whose wives / did not make any acceptance of a gift from that king’s wicked wife.

Because this hermitage of ascetics was thereby disgraced, / therefore may you become despicable, turned into the form of a rock!”

Then, at that very moment, she indeed turned into the form of a rock, / motionless at that very moment, immediately following the words of the sage.

Then her retinue, bewildered by sorrow on her account, / with eyes filled with tears, departed despondent toward their own city.

O best of brahmins, [they] related all that occurrence concerning Damayantī, / the tale concerning her curse.

Hearing that tale born of the curse at that time, that king quickly / went to the forest in sorrow in order to propitiate the brahmins.

Then those four sages, quickly / learning that the king had approached to propitiate [them] for his wife's sake,

took their sacred fires and wives, and straightway / went swiftly through the sky to Kurukṣetra then.

The king, too, having sought those sages everywhere with great effort, / became dejected, afflicted with weariness, and grieved by his wife's misfortune.

Then he went to that place where his wife turned to stone / remained, surrounded on all sides by crowds of ascetic women.

Then, seeing her in such a state, surrounded by all his attendants, / he cried out repeatedly, “Alas, alas!” and fell swooning to the earth.

Then, having regained consciousness with difficulty after being sprinkled with water, / he wept aloud, constantly remembering his beloved's virtues:

“Alas, my beloved, fawn-eyed lady, who takes away my life! / Where have you gone today, beautiful-faced one, leaving me, your loving husband?

You never ate while I had not eaten; you never went to sleep while I was awake; / you never transgressed my command out of pride in your good fortune.

I do not recall any improper word ever spoken by you, / even in private, large-eyed lady, much less in an assembly at dinner.”

Sūta said: / While the king was lamenting thus with great sorrow, / his ministers arrived, having heard that the king was in such a state.

Then, comforting him with difficulty by means of many extensive examples / of ancient royal seers who had met with great calamities,

they led that wretched king away, his eyes blurred with tears, / sighing like a serpent, devoid of his splendor.

He, too, having built a very lovely abode around her on all sides, / adorned his wife, even though standing in the form of stone, / with incense of camphor, agallochum, and the like, with garments, kumkuma, and sandalwood paste.

Thus ends the one hundred and eleventh chapter, entitled “The Narration of the King of Ānarta's Grief upon Damayantī Turning to Stone through the Brahmin's Curse,” in the story of Damayantī, in the māhātmya of the sacred field of the holy Hāṭakeśvara, in the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, the sixth [part] of the eighty-one-thousand-verse collection of the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa.