Skandapurana 5.141

Sūta said: / Likewise, there is also another sacred triad of Gaṇapatis there, / holy, granting heaven, granting the mortal realm, and also averting hell,

destroying all obstacles, worshipped by gods and Dānavas, / bestowing all desires, and increasing learning and fame.

The seers said: / Three kinds of men are born here on the surface of the earth, O Sūta: / the highest, the middling, and others who are base.

The highest pray for liberation alone, / having gone to which they never return in any way to the surface of the earth.

The middling [pray for] the path to heaven and delightful celestial enjoyments, / sport with apsarases, attained by rites such as sacrifices.

The base, devoted to sensory objects, delight here in the mortal world, / taking great pleasure there like worms in poison.

Why, having abandoned heaven and liberation, is mortal existence desired, / on account of which that lord of gaṇas, the granter of mortal existence, is besought by mortals?

And by whom were those elephant-faced ones installed in that sacred field? / At what time should they be seen? Tell everything in detail.

Sūta said: / Formerly, having performed severe austerity in the mortal world, best of brahmins, / then, overjoyed, they would go to heaven according to their own wish; / others likewise [went on] the path to liberation, their minds enlightened by meditation.

Then, once heaven had become crowded with the best of men, / and the gods were being displaced all around due to their power,

the thousand-eyed one [Indra] himself, having gone along with all the hosts of gods, / spoke to Śaṃkara, who was seated upon one throne together with Gaurī.

Indra said: / O Supreme Lord, by mortals perfected through the power of austerity / our entire glory, dwellings, and so forth are being occupied.

Therefore, having shown us favor, devise some means now / whereby we may abide happily here in the abode of Śiva.

Then, having heard that speech of theirs, O brahmins, the three-eyed one [Virūpākṣa] / looked at the moon-like face of Pārvatī standing beside him.

Then the goddess, having rubbed her own limbs thoroughly again and again, / and gathered all that scurf, then fashioned an elephant-faced one,

four-armed, huge-bodied, endowed with a pot-belly, / exciting great wonder among all those heaven-dwellers.

Then he respectfully said to the goddess who dwells on the peak: / 'Tell me without delay, O Mother, the task for which I was created.

In the three worlds, by your grace, nothing is impossible for me.'

The holy Goddess said: / Those men in the mortal world who are always intent upon heaven and liberation, / obstacles should be placed by you in their auspicious deeds.

Thirty 'lords of rivers' [oceans], seventy-seven śaṅkus, / sixty mahāsarojas, and twenty nikharvas,

along with ninety-five crores, arbuda, and ayuta, / fifty-five lakhs, twenty-five thousand, / and six hundred and ninety other gaṇas reside here;

of whom Nadī is remembered as the first and Mahākāla as the next, / may all those best of gaṇas become subject to your command.

Sovereignty has been granted by me to you, O child; exercise it, / established in the sovereignty over all the multitudes of gaṇas.

Having spoken thus, the goddess then brought golden jars / containing medicinal herbs, filled with water from excellent sacred fords, auspicious and grand.

The mistress of the gods herself performed his consecration / to the delight of songs and instrumental music, with sounds arising from auspicious dancing.

The thirty-three crores of gods who, it is recorded, reside in heaven, / all of them, having arrived there, performed auspicious rites for him.

Then, delighted, the Lord whose banner is a bull gave him / a sharp battle-axe into his hand, truly the supreme weapon for ever.

And Pārvatī [gave him] an inexhaustible vessel full of sweetmeats / for the purpose of food, the illustrious one devoted to maternal love.

And Kārtikeya, greatly delighted, [gave him] a mouse / to serve as his mount, regarding him as a brother, endowed with affection for his kin.

With a joyful mind Brahmā gave him divine knowledge, / whatever may be of the past, future, and present.

Viṣṇu [gave] intellect; the thousand-eyed one [gave] supreme, great good fortune; / Kāmadeva gave good fortune; Kubera [gave] riches and the like;

the Lord Sūrya gave splendor; the moon-maker [Candra] gave prime radiance.

So all the other deities gave many desired things / belonging to themselves, for the pleasure of the Goddess and the lordly God.

Having thus obtained boons, O best of brahmins, that lord of gaṇas, / ever devoted to the service of the gods, created obstacles on the surface of the earth

for those striving for righteousness, for liberation, and for good deeds. / Then, having arrived on the surface of the earth, that Ganeśa who is commemorated there,

having arrived, was installed there by those possessing aerial chariots, O brahmins, / whereby people desirous of heaven performed worship to him / first in all undertakings, intent upon the destruction of obstacles.

At that very time, by the brahmins born in Camatkārapura, / intent upon the knowledge of Brahman, seeking liberation, / Īśāna, who is proclaimed as the granter of liberation, was installed there.

By others desiring heaven, Heramba, the granter of the door to heaven, / was installed there as described, truly matching his name.

Likewise, by others [was installed] the lord of gaṇas named 'Granter of Mortal Existence' stationed there, / through whom those fallen from heaven never go to hell and the like, / nor to the state of animals, or of worms, or of immovable beings.

For this reason, in that holy sacred field, O best of brahmins, / Heramba became the granter of mortal existence, always the granter of mortal existence to the dwellers of heaven.

This entire holy narrative concerning the origin of Heramba has been related to you, / which, when heard, destroys all obstacles for men.

Whatever person worships him on this fourth day of the bright half of Māgha, / no obstacle arises anywhere for him for a year.

Thus ends the one hundred and forty-second chapter, named 'The Description of the Māhātmya of the Three Gaṇapatis', in the Māhātmya of the Sacred Field of Hāṭakeśvara, in the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, the sixth [part], in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand [verses].