Skandapurana 5.135

Māṇḍavya said: / 'O best of gods, I shall accept a boon arising from you. / But let Dharmarāja explain to me one decisive matter:

For all living beings in the world, the good or bad deed done / approaches [them] and none other; this is true, O best of gods.

What sin was committed by me here or in another [life], / that I have suffered such pain and yet by no means met death?'

Dharmarāja said: / 'In another body, O brahmin, while you were still a child, / a heron was pierced on the ground in its body by you with the very sharp tip of a spike.

Indeed, not even the slightest other sin was committed [by you]. / For that reason alone was this agony endured [by you], O twice-born.'

Sūta said: / Hearing those words of his, filled with intense rage, / Māṇḍavya then addressed Dharmarāja standing before him:

'Since for this tiny fault such excessive punishment / was meted out by you, O evil-minded one, therefore receive my curse:

Having obtained a human body and abiding in a śūdra's womb, / you shall experience immense suffering brought about by the destruction of [your] kinsmen.

And today I have established this rule for all embodied beings: / only after the eighth year will a living creature, whether man or woman, / actually take on [guilt] through a censured deed.'

Having spoken thus to Dharmarāja, that Māṇḍavya then / departed, freed from anger, towards the quarter he desired, O twice-born.

Then, seeing him depart, all the sky-dwellers spoke, / anxious on account of Dharmarāja, having heard a curse of that kind.

The gods said: / 'O venerable one, Dharmarāja is devoted solely to righteousness; / you ought not by any means make him a śūdra through a curse.

Therefore, show grace to this lord of righteousness, O twice-born, / and at our word, immediately ask for a boon as well.'

Māṇḍavya said: / 'The word that has been spoken by me cannot turn out otherwise, O best of gods. / Dharmarāja will inevitably enter a śūdra's womb.

However, he will have no offspring in that womb, / and he will attain the supreme state of Dharmarāja once again.

And let him, untroubled, worship the Three-eyed Lord right in this sacred field; / by the grace of that god, he shall swiftly meet death.

Likewise, if a boon is to be granted to me by you, O guardians of heaven, / then let this spike, by our touch, bestow great merit.'

The gods said: / 'Whoever rises in the morning and touches this spike / shall be freed from sin in this world.'

Having spoken thus to that sage, those gods headed by Śakra / then spoke respectfully to that devoted wife together with her husband:

'You too ask of us what you desire, O lady of fair complexion, / whatever constantly resides in your mind; nothing is impossible for us to grant here.'

The devoted wife said: / 'May this ditch that has been made by me in this place, O lords of the thirty [gods], / attain renown in the three worlds under my name as Dīrghikā.'

The gods said: / 'From this day forward in this world, this ditch of yours, O fair lady, / shall be celebrated throughout the three worlds as Dīrghikā.

Those men who take a ritual ablution in it after rising in the morning / shall immediately become freed from all sins.

When the sun enters the sign of Virgo and the fifth day has arrived, / those people who take a ritual ablution here with faith

shall, if childless, be blessed with sons who propagate their lineage.' / Having spoken thus to her, the gods went to heaven, O best of twice-born.

The devoted wife, a lovely and auspicious lady, / enjoyed the unsurpassed bliss of love with that very beloved [of hers]

upon charming mountains and on river sandbanks, / in variegated gardens, and in forests and groves.

Then, when old age arrived through the lapse of time, / she devotedly resorted to that very true sacred ford of her own.

Then, having cast off her body upon seeing her beloved dead, / the devoted wife went to the world of Brahmā in that water.

All this, the supreme narrative of Dīrghikā, has been related to you, / simply by hearing which a person is liberated from sin.

Thus ends the one hundred and thirty-sixth chapter, named 'The Description of the Origin and Greatness of Dīrghikā,' in the māhātmya of the Hāṭakeśvara sacred field, in the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, the sixth [part] of the eighty-one-thousand-verse collection of the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa.