Skandapurana 5.113

Sūta said: / That brahmin too, O best of the twice-born, covered in boils / and filled with utter shame, went away into another forest. / 1

Then, having attained dispassion, he engaged in terrible austerity, / having abandoned all his home and possessions, and the affection born of wife and sons. / 2

Emaciating his body through observances and restraints, / he went to a certain body of water and established Maheśvara there. / 3

Then, after a long time, Maheśvara was pleased with him, / and appearing before him, said, "Ask for whatever you desire." / 4

The trijāta said: / "O Lord, through my mother's fault I have attained supreme embarrassment / in the midst of the leading brahmins and of the ruler of Ānarta. / 5

I am not able to speak to anyone or show myself, O omnipresent Lord, / knowing that I am a trijāta, even though endowed with abundant learning. / 6

Therefore, O Lord of gods, let a plan be devised so that / I may become the very best among those twice-born." / 7

The Holy Lord said: / "O best of the twice-born, among the brahmins who dwell in Camatkārapura, / you shall surely become the best of all by my grace. / 8

Therefore, wait for some time, O best of brahmins; / when the time arrives, I will surely take you there." / 9

Having spoken thus, the Lord of gods disappeared from sight. / The brahmin too performed austerity, likewise worshipping Hara. / 10

Now after some time, O twice-born ones, in Camatkārapura / there was a brahmin named Devarāta, born in the lineage of Mudgala. / 11

His son was named Kratha, haughty in body on account of his youth, / always filled with pride, and devoted to manly prowess. / 12

Once, O twice-born ones, that brahmin went toward Nāgatīrtha / on the fifth day in the dark half of Śrāvaṇa, wandering in the forest. / 13

Then he saw the son of the lord of serpents, radiant with great luster, / known as Rudramāla, accompanied by his mother.

Then, seeing that very small young serpent / and thinking it was a water snake, he struck it down with a club.

As he was being beaten, he uttered a very loud cry: / 'Ah, mother! Father, father! Innocent as I am, I am ruined!'

Hearing that human-like sound from the serpent, / the brahmin, terrified with fear, quickly went to his own house.

Then his mother came out of the water; / when she looked on the bank, there she saw her son struck down.

Then she fell into a swoon, seeing her son in such a state, / shattered by blows of the stick, his whole body drenched in blood.

Then, regaining consciousness, she uttered many laments, / sorrowfully afflicted with grief, her eyes blurred with tears:

'Alas, alas, my son, having abandoned me, where have you gone, / to that place from which there is no return? Have you no love for me?

By what sinful, wicked soul have you been slain, my son? / Though you were sinless, my son, against whom has Yama become enraged today?

[May ruin come] to the town, realm, and family of the evil-minded one / by whom you were slain today, on the fifth [tithi], without being worshipped!

Playing in the dust today, coming back after a long time, / lovingly climbing into my lap, who will soil my garment?

Without you, who will speak before me today / stammering, delightful words that bring smiles to people's faces?

Resting on your father's lap and pulling at his beard, / who, without you, my son, will bring him delight today?

You were forbidden by me, child, yet you followed behind / to this mortal world, dear son, full of many dangers!'

Lamenting thus, enraged and consumed by sorrow, the nāgī / took her dead son and went into the presence of Ananta.

Then, casting down her dead child before him, / she uttered laments, miserable like a forlorn osprey.

The serpent king too, seeing his own son struck down, / fell into a swoon, tormented by grief for his son.

Then, sprinkled with cool water, he regained consciousness with difficulty, / and made pitiable laments like an ordinary man.

At that moment, all the serpents gathered there; / grieving, they wept, their eyes blurred with tears:

Vāsuki, Padmaja, Śaṅkha, and the highly venomous Takṣaka, / Śaṅkhacūḍa, Sacūḍa, and the dreadful Puṇḍarīka,

Añjana, Vāmana, and another, Kumuda, / the two nāgas Kambala and Aśvatara, and the nāga Karkoṭaka,

Puṣpadanta, Sudanta, Mūṣaka, Mūṣakādana, / Elāpatra, Supatra, Dīrghāsya, and Puṣpavāhana—

these and other serpents arrived there by the thousands, / knowing the lord of snakes was burning with grief for his son.

Then they all consoled that lord of wind-eaters / with past events, narratives, and various parables.

Having been thus consoled by them at last, the best of snakes, / full of sorrow, performed the cremation by fire for his son.

And at the time of offering water, he spoke to all the serpents, / to all the nāgas who had assembled to offer water:

'I shall not offer water for my own son in any way, / even though urged by you and by other kinsmen,

until complete destruction is wrought upon that wicked one / who caused my son's death, along with his wife, sons, and servants.'

Having spoken thus, Śeṣa then sought out that brahmin / by whom, the sinner, his son had been slaughtered with a wooden stick.

Then the lord of snakes said to the serpents standing beside him: / 'Let my excellent friends go to the sacred field of Hāṭakeśvara.

Quickly slay the killer of my son along with his family and dependents; / after that, the whole of Camatkārapura must be devoured!

All the best of snakes must take up residence right there; / and that town must be made such that no one may ever dwell there again.'

Having been spoken to thus by him, the chief serpents, having heard [his order], / went quickly there and first [killed] that excellent brahmin,

devouring the son of Devarāta while he was asleep, and after that, / his entire family, filled with great fury.

Then, enraged, they devoured others too—children, the old, and young boys; / all of them [devoured] even those born in animal wombs.

Meanwhile, in that town, a dreadful outcry / of the foremost brahmins arose, born of the devouring by serpents.

On the ground there and wherever anything was seen, / all of that was overrun by serpents, terrifying and black-bodied.

In the meantime, some succumbed to death; / others, reeling from poison, collapsed onto the surface of the earth.

Others, abandoning house and all, sons and the rest, / terrified, ran afar toward the forest.

Other brahmins, knowers of mantras, strove on all sides; / still others, carrying herbs, ran slowly, terrified.

Thus, directed against that town, all those best of snakes / moved about so that no brahmin might dwell there.

Then, having depopulated the town, all those best of snakes / ranged at will there, in sacred fords and temples.

No snake leaves the sacred field to go outside, / nor does any other human enter that sacred field.

Thus arose this mutual arrangement between serpents and humans, / arising from killing and devouring, across the outside and inside.

In the meantime, Śeṣa, casting aside his sorrow born of his son, / rejoiced and gave water [libation], accompanied by his kinsmen.

Then some of those brahmins, agitated with fear of the serpents, / full of grief, swiftly gathered together, facing all directions.

Then they came to the forest where Trijāta was staying, / who had obtained a boon from Hara, was joyful, and was established in great austerity.

Seeing all those people thus overwhelmed by sorrow, / weeping copiously and piteously as they remembered their sons, wives, and others,

he too was filled with sorrow upon seeing those born in his own city; / then, his eyes troubled with tears, he spoke to the best of brahmins:

“Let all the brahmins listen to my words now: / by me, upon leaving that city, Hara was propitiated.

By him a desired boon was granted to me, O best of the twice-born; / it has not been taken by me even today; I shall request it now,

so that there may be the destruction of those extremely wicked nāgas / by whose sinful deeds our whole city has been ruined.”

Having spoken thus, that brahmin Trijāta requested the Supreme Lord: / “O God, grant me that boon now.”

Then the Lord of gods said: “Quickly ask, O twice-born, / so that I may grant the desired [boon], even if it should be exceedingly difficult to obtain.”

Trijāta said: / “Our whole city has been rendered devoid of people by the nāgas; / therefore let them all go to destruction, O rider of the bull,

so that it may be filled with brahmins once again, O best of gods, / and that fame arising from delivering my own abode may also accrue to me.”

The Lord said: / “Nothing improper was done, O brahmin, by those noble serpents / whose blameless son was slain here by a brahmin,

especially, O best of the twice-born, when the fifth day [of the lunar fortnight] had arrived, / and that too in the month of Śrāvaṇa, when serpents are worshipped.

Therefore, I shall tell you an infallible, unsurpassable mantra, / merely by the recitation of which the poison of serpents is destroyed.

Having gone there surrounded by all those brahmins, / recite that mantra, O fortunate one, in a loud voice everywhere.

Those vilest of serpents who, having heard it, do not go to Pātāla, / will become venomless on your word; of this there is no doubt.”

Trijāta said: / “Tell me that great mantra which destroys all virulent [poisons], / by which I, having gone to my own place, may eradicate the serpents.”

The Lord said: / “Gara is called poison; and it is not there now. / By my grace, this is to be uttered by you, O best of brahmins:

‘Na garaṃ, na garaṃ!’ [‘No poison, no poison!’] And hearing this, whichever vilest serpents / remain there, they can be killed at will.

From this day forward, that place will become widely renowned / on the surface of the earth by the name ‘Nagara’, increasing your fame.

Likewise, whatever other Nāgara brahmin born of a pure lineage, / having consecrated water three times with the mantra named Nagara,

shall pour it himself into the mouth of a living being bitten by death / and even fallen into the power of death, will restore him to life.

Even a mortal staying elsewhere who, when asleep, / remembers this three-syllable mantra, shall not be harmed by a serpent.

Whether mineral, vegetable, animal, or artificial, that poison / touched by this mantra indeed turns into nectar.

Diseases arising from indigestion and whatever other ailments originate in the belly, / all quickly go to destruction through the power of this mantra.”

Having spoken thus to that brahmin, the Lord whose banner is the bull / then vanished, just like a lamp without oil.

Trijāta, too, with a joyful mind, went quickly towards Camatkārapura / along with those brahmins who had survived the slaughter.

Thus all those brahmins, accompanied by Trijāta, / arrived, loudly chanting: “Na garaṃ, na garaṃ!”

That sacred field belonging to Hāṭakeśvara was completely overrun / by terrible, cruel venomous snakes who followed the order of Śeṣa.

Then those serpents, hearing the accomplished mantra born of Śiva, / became venomless and devoid of energy, and fled in all directions.

Some of the biting snakes retreated to ant-hills situated among various holes, / while others departed for Pātāla.

Certain ones, terrified with fear, afflicted by old age, / or others because of infancy, were unable to slither away.

All those serpents, in their thousands, were slain there with wooden sticks / by those best of brahmins, who retaliated for what had been done.

Having thus eradicated them all, those brahmins, freed from distress, / placed Trijāta at their head and performed the duties of their settlement.

Thus from that time onward that city came into being, / by the grace of Bharga, the god of gods, O best of the twice-born.

Whoever constantly recites this narrative concerning the origin of Nagara, / for him no fear arising from serpents arises anywhere or in any way.

Thus ends the one hundred and fourteenth chapter, named “Description of the Origin of the Name Nagara”, in the māhātmya of the sacred field of Hāṭakeśvara, in the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, the sixth [section], in the Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.