Skandapurana 5.194

The seers said: / "The Śūdrī and also the Brāhmaṇī, who were extolled by you / as two unexcelled sacred fords born in the sacred field of Hāṭakeśvara—

how did that come to be there, or by whom was it made? / Tell all of this at length, O highly wise one!

The origin through the sandals was previously heard by us from you; / tell that māhātmya as well, and the arising from them!"

Sūta said: / "Formerly there was a Nāgara brahmin renowned as Chāndogya, / in whose lineage too the foremost brahmins were renowned as the Chāndogyas.

To him, a knower of the Sāmaveda, observant of the duties of the householder stage of life, / when he reached old age, a very beautiful daughter was born,

endowed with all virtues, marked with every auspicious sign, / red in seven parts, deep in three, fine in five, not broad in the waist,

with large eyes like lotus petals, long hair, very lovely, / with bimba-fruit lips, fine body hair, and splendor equal to the full moon.

Her father gave her the name 'Brāhmaṇī', O best of the twice-born, / because she was given [as a gift] by well-worshiped brahmins inside the pavilion

to him who had reached old age and was devoid of offspring. / And she of slender limbs grew just like the crescent moon

when the bright fortnight has arrived, delighting the eyes of men. / On the very day that she was born to the noble Chāndogya, / a daughter of similar beauty was born to the king of Ānarta,

by the mass of whose bodily radiance the entire lying-in chamber / became bright with light, as if with masses of jewels, even when night came. / Therefore her father gave her the name Ratnavatī.

Then that auspicious girl formed a friendship with Brāhmaṇī, / and between the two of them there was never any separation.

They had a single seat, likewise a bed, and ate together of the same food. / When the eighth year arrived, O best of the twice-born,

her father considered marriage, to bestow her upon a groom. / Learning of that intention of her father, filled with sorrow

and terrified of separation from her friend, Ratnavatī then spoke, / her eyes full of tears, distressed, with a voice choked with sobs:

"O friend, father will arrange my marriage now, / and for a married woman, friendship will never be possible!"

Hearing her words like the fall of a thunderbolt, that friend also / wept, embracing her neck, her senses agitated by affection.

Then, hearing that weeping, her mother, Mṛgāvatī, / arrived in agitation and indeed spoke these words:

"Why are you weeping, daughter? Who has caused you displeasure, / so that I may punish that wicked soul this very day?"

Ratnavatī said: / "Listen to me: my dear Brāhmaṇī, cherished like life itself, / having obtained marriage, the blessed girl will go to her husband's house.

And deprived of her, I cannot live by any means; / for this reason, O queen, I weep, deeply distressed."

Mṛgāvatī said: / "If it is so, daughter, to whichever husband's house you will go, / whichever brahmin is established in the royal priesthood of that king,

to his son I will give this dear friend of yours, / so that there too you will have companionship with her."

Having spoken thus, the queen then summoned Chāndogya, the best of the twice-born, / and bowed in humility, she said to him:

"This daughter of yours, O brahmin, is very dear to my daughter; / this proud girl cannot bear separation from her even for a moment.

Likewise, this daughter of mine is very dear to your daughter; / therefore, fulfill my word which I shall speak, O you of noble vows!

To whichever king this maiden of mine is ever given, / to whichever brahmin is his priest, your own daughter should be given,

so that there may be no estrangement between them, O best of the foremost twice-born, / and they may remain in one place, by your favor, O excellent one!"

Chāndogya said: / "A Nāgara who, bypassing a Nāgara, gives to another, / or who accepts a maiden for marriage by any means,

he is a defiler of the row [of diners] through sin; he cannot be a Nāgara here. / Therefore I shall never give my daughter / to another, bypassing a Nāgara: this resolve has been made by me."

Brāhmaṇī said: / "I will not go to a husband; as an unmarried girl observing celibacy, / wherever my dear friend is given, there only will I go!

If by force you arrange my marriage, father, / I will consume poison or resort to fire,

or I will surely destroy my body with a weapon, father! / Knowing this, father, do what is proper!"

Sūta said: / Knowing that resolve of hers, that brahmin, filled with grief / and fearing the sin of killing a woman, abandoned her and went to his own home.

She too delighted together with that Ratnavatī, O best of the twice-born, / her heart ever joyous, having renounced affection for her father.

She, for her part, reached youth, peerless in beauty on earth.

Thus ends the one hundred and ninety-fifth chapter, titled 'Description of the Account of the Daughter of the Chāndogya Brahmin', in the Māhātmya of the Sacred Field of Hāṭakeśvara, in the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, the sixth [part] of the eighty-one-thousand-verse collection of the glorious and great Skandapurāṇa.