Skandapurana 5.119

Sūta said: / When the gods, Indra and the others, were thus conquered on the battlefield, / Mahiṣa then ruled even over the three worlds.

Whatever of supreme value he saw in the three worlds— / elephants, steeds, chariots, horses, and the like—that Asura seized it all.

While he was behaving thus, the gods along with Indra / gathered for the sake of his destruction and spoke words filled with sorrow.

Meanwhile, the best of sages, Nārada, arrived there, / having seen all that excessive conduct of Mahiṣa.

And then he told them in full detail / of all his extensive deeds, which oppressed the three worlds.

Then their great rage increased all the more, / having heard Nārada's words arising from such reports of the world.

From their mouths came forth heat born of their wrath, / by which the whole circle of the directions was instantly polluted.

At that moment Kārtikeya arrived there / and asked: "What is this cause of the anger of the gods, / by which, O sage, the entire circle of the directions has become clouded?" / Nārada said: / "O Skanda, news has now been reported by me to these [gods] / of how the three worlds have been seized by all the Dānavas, haughty with pride.

A jewel among women or a jewel among horses—there was nothing in anyone's house / that those insolent and uncontrollable ones did not plunder once they saw it."

Hearing that, [anger] arose especially in Kārtikeya, / just as the anger had come forth through the mouths of the gods.

In that interval, at the end of that anger, a young maiden was born, / endowed with all auspicious marks, possessed of divine radiance, and auspicious.

Because that maiden was born here from the anger of Kārtikeya / blended with the anger of the celestials, she is therefore called Kātyāyanī.

Then the lord of the gods gave her his thunderbolt weapon; / Skanda [gave] a very sharp-pointed spear; the god Janārdana [gave] a bow;

Mahādeva [gave] a trident, and Varuṇa himself a noose; / the Sun [gave] white arrows, and the Moon an excellent shield;

Nirṛti, being pleased, [gave] a sword, and the Fire-god a flaming brand; / Vāyu [gave] a sharp dagger, and the Lord of Wealth a club;

The lord of the departed [gave] a fierce staff for the destruction of the enemies of the gods. / Seeing these twelve weapons thus, O best of brahmins,

Kātyāyanī then produced twelve arms at that moment / and swiftly grasped those divine weapons of the heaven-dwellers.

Then, her bodily hair bristling with joy, she said to them all: / "Speak without delay, O best of gods, for what purpose I was created!

I will perform your entire task; there is no doubt in this." / The gods said: / "A terrible Dānava, Mahiṣa, has arisen here at this time.

He cannot be slain by all living beings, especially by men; / except for a single woman. For that reason you were created by us.

Therefore, go now to the excellent mountain named Vindhya; / perform fierce austerity there so that your radiance may increase.

Then, knowing you to be endowed with radiance, we ourselves / will place you in front and wage battle against that evil-minded one.

Then, consumed by your weapons, he will meet his death, / and, having slain our enemy, we shall obtain the sovereignty of the gods."

Thus ends the one hundred and twentieth chapter, entitled 'Description of the Origin of Kātyāyanī,' in the glorification of the sacred field of Hāṭakeśvara in the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, the sixth [section], in the eighty-one-thousand-verse collection of the glorious Skandapurāṇa.