Skandapurana 5.171

Sūta said: / From then on, watching for vulnerabilities, / Viśvāmitra remained waiting to slay Vasiṣṭha, O best of the twice-born, 1

like an elephant [seeking to crush] a mosquito by the power of his own might. / When another day arrived, that river was summoned 2

by Viśvāmitra; she came swiftly in the form of a woman. / Folding her hands in reverence, she said: “Let an order be given to me, / O brahmin-seer, for what purpose have I been summoned now?” 3

Viśvāmitra said: / “When he performs his ablution in your water, O great river, / assume the utmost velocity and bring him near me, 4

his ears filled with water, his limbs thrown into disorder, / so that I may slay him quickly, for I see no other weakness.” 5

Addressed thus by Viśvāmitra, the river, / terrified and filled with fear of a curse, spoke these words: 6

“I will not commit treason against the great-souled Vasiṣṭha. / O brahmin-seer, it is not proper for you to carry out the murder of a brahmin. 7

If you have been declared a brahmin-seer by Brahmā himself, / yet Vasiṣṭha does not [call you so] out of [self-]will, cast aside your anger! 8

He who even in thought contemplates the slaying of a brahmin / is purified only through a taptakṛcchra penance, so said Svāyambhuva Manu.” 9

And the man who speaks aloud of killing a brahmin / would be purified by the Cāndrāyaṇa penance; this the god has said.

Therefore, I will never carry out your word / that you spoke concerning Vasiṣṭha. Do as you please!"

Hearing that, Viśvāmitra was enraged at her, O best of brahmins, / and cursed that foremost of rivers. Listen to what he said:

"Since, O wicked one, you have not obeyed my word, O vile river, / therefore your aquatic current shall become a stream of blood!"

Having spoken thus, his eyes red with anger, / he then threw water from his hand, consecrated seven times with mantras, into her waters.

And then at that very moment, O brahmins, that water of Sarasvatī, / which had been very holy and resembled a conch, turned into blood.

In the meantime, ghosts, spirits, and night-roaming demons arrived; / drinking repeatedly, they danced, sang, and laughed.

Whatever ascetics resided there upon her bank, / all of them left her and sought a distant country.

And those Nāgaras dwelling outside who were settled there, / Caṇḍaśarman and the others, also went far away.

Vasiṣṭha too, the best of munis, went to Mount Arbuda, / while Viśvāmitra, the brahmin seer, went to Camatkārapura,

which was situated in the sacred field born of Hāṭakeśvara, filled with brahmins. / Establishing an hermitage there, he performed terrible austerity,

by which he became capable of creation and rivaled Brahmā. / All this has been related to you: how the water of Sarasvatī

turned to blood by the curse of Viśvāmitra, / and how the brahmins, Caṇḍaśarman and others, went to another land.

Thus ends the one hundred and seventy-second chapter, entitled 'Description of the Curse on Sarasvatī,' in the māhātmya of the sacred field of Hāṭakeśvara in the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, the sixth [part] of the auspicious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, in the collection of eighty-one thousand verses.