Skanda Purana 5.253

The Śūdra said: / “These words of yours seem wondrous to me. / Although it may be a great hardship for you to speak, O you of noble vows,

nevertheless, by my good fortune and my merits, you have come to my house. / I am never sated as I drink again the nectar of speech fallen from your lotus mouth,

the narrative of the story of Gaurī, filled with exceptional virtues. / How did Maheśvara perform the dance surrounded by the gods?

How did it come about during Cāturmāsya? What is this vow that is enjoined to be undertaken? / How did she grant grace, and what indeed was the grace?

Tell this in full to me who asks, O best of the twice-born! / The Lord is worshipped in the world; you are the one who grants grace to me.

With a pleasant face, at ease, relate it, O you of noble vows!” / Having heard that, Gālava too spoke again, greatly delighted.

Gālava said: / “I shall tell you this sacred tradition, O sinless one; / listen attentively to it, which yields the fruit of ten thousand sacrifices.

When Cāturmāsya arrived, Hara, filled with devotion, / intent upon the vow of celibacy, became cheerful-faced.

He made the solemn resolve of the gods and great seers. / Then the gods, having assembled, went to Mount Mandara.

Having bowed to Maheśāna, they stood before him with folded hands. / Seeing all the gods assembled, Hara spoke to them.

He recounted what Pārvatī had spoken: ‘When another matter arises, / when dramatic dance is undertaken by me, let there be helpers in it,

led by Indra, when Cāturmāsya arrives.’ / Greatly rejoiced, they said, ‘So be it,’ and bowed to the Bearer of the Trident.

They went each to his own abode in aerial chariots bright as the sun. / Then, on the fourteenth day of the bright fortnight of Āṣāḍha, Maheśvara

began to dance to please Bhavānī / on Mandara, best of mountains. The great seers went there:

Nārada, Devala, Vyāsa, Śuka, Dvaipāyana, and others; / Aṅgiras, Marīci, and the progenitor Kardama;

Kaśyapa, Gautama, Atri, Vasiṣṭha, and Bhṛgu; / Jamadagni, and Uttaṅka, and Rāma son of Bhṛgu.

And Agastya, Puloman, Pulastya, and Pulaha, / and Pracetas and Kratu, as well as other great seers,

siddhas, yakṣas, piśācas, and cāraṇas along with bards, / the ādityas, guhyakas, sādhyas, vasus, and the two Aśvins—

all these, led by Indra, preceded by Brahmā and Viṣṇu, / arrived, longing to see the dance of the great lord.

Then the gaṇas, led by Nandin, gave jewels, / ornaments, and garments in order to the sages and the rest.

Then, as thousands of musical instruments were played on every side / and all shouted, “Victory!”, the Lord commanded the ritual observance.

Bhavānī, with a joyful heart, gazed upon Mahādeva, / [surrounded by] Jayā, Vijayā, Jayantī, and Maṅgalāruṇā.

The auspicious-faced goddess shone amidst her four companions; / through the connection of her presence, the world shines endowed with supreme excellence.

The beauty born of her body cannot be described at all; / even the Lord was gazed upon by tens of millions of gaṇas with various faces.

Surrounded by hosts of piśācas and bhūtas, exceedingly splendid, / Nandin, holding a golden staff, monkey-faced, shone in front.

Vidyādharas and gandharvas, Citrasena and the rest, / the serpents, and the lords of sages shone there as if painted in a picture.

The rāgas, of great majesty, with Śrīrāga as their foremost, were his sons; / and formless were those sons born of the god Hara.

Each had six wives, and Brahmā was the grandfather of them all; / together with them those rāgas, assuming bodily forms for their sport,

manifested suddenly when thought of by that Śambhu. / I will tell you their names; listen, O wealthy one:

Śrīrāga was the first son of Īśvara, bewitching all, / residing between his eyebrows, granter of the Supreme Brahman;

from its center, from the Great Lord, arose the best of gaṇas. / Then Vasanta was the second, of great renown, [born] from his waist;

[he was] the great mark of the elements, and from the viśuddha-cakra / the son Pañcama was the third, an ornament of the universe.

From the heart of the great lord arose the cakra indeed [known as] anāhata; / from the region of the nose Bhairava himself was born, terrible.

This cakra, indeed named maṇipūraka, bestows supreme liberation; / and fifty phonemes, names, and numbers [arose] from the Great Lord.

Likewise the twelve zodiac signs and the lunar mansions / arose from the svādhiṣṭhāna-cakra, joined with the seed of the world.

In an instant they increase, and thence the semen comes forth; / from that semen the world was created; it is the generative organ of the Lord.

And from the ādhāra-cakra arose the great sixth, Naṭanārāyaṇa, / a son dear to the Great Lord, dark blue, possessing the prowess of Viṣṇu.

These embodied rāgas were born, accompanied by their wives; / their wives were born from the head of the wielder of the Pināka.

Thirty-six in number—now hear about them: / Gaurī, Kolāhalī, Dhīrā, Drāviḍī, Mālakauśikī,

the sixth is Devagāndhārī: these are the beloved [wives] of Śrīrāga. / Āndolā, Kauśikī, and also Caramamañjarī,

Gaṇḍagirī, Devaśākhā, and Rāmagirī belong to Vasanta. / Triguṇā, Stambhatīrthā, Ahirī, and Kuṅkumā,

Vairāṭī, and Sāmaverī are considered the six wives of the fifth [rāga]. / Bhairavī, Gurjarī, Bhāṣā, Velāgulī,

Karṇāṭakī, and Raktahaṃsā are the six wives following Bhairava. / Baṅgālī, Madhurā, Kāmodā, Akṣinārikā,

Devagirī, and Devālī: these follow Megharāga. / Troṭakī, Mīḍakī, and Narādumbī,

Malhārī, and Sindhumalhārī follow Naṭanārāyaṇa. / These, having bowed to the Lord of the Mountain, to the Great Lord and the Great Goddess,

accompanied by their own forms and vehicles, stood with their husbands. / Brahmā delighted Śaṃkara with the music of the mṛdaṅga drum;

he made fine music with the four-syllable drumming again. / Keśava displayed the keeping of the rhythm to the Great Lord.

The winds there played music melodiously and with power; / Mahendra played the flute, many fine notes and sweet tones.

Agni made the sound of a winnowing fan, and the two Aśvins played the paṇava drum; / Soma and Sūrya played subsidiary instruments on all sides.

The gaṇas played bells by hundreds and thousands. / The lords of sages, the goddesses, together with Pārvatī,

seated on golden thrones, looked on. / The vasus, along with great serpents, blew horns;

the sādhyas made drum sounds, and other foremost gods played instruments; / the sādhyas played the jharjharī, the gomukha, and other instruments in the great festival.

The sweet-voiced gandharvas were joined in rhythm on stringed instruments; / the siddhas on all sides made the sound of golden horns.

Then the Lord assumed the form of the Great Dancer, / with five crowns upon his heads adorned with serpents,

all his matted locks untied, his body smeared with ashes, / endowed with ten arms, adorned with necklaces and armlets.

Assuming a radiant form that pervaded the three worlds, equal in brilliance to ten million suns, / the Lord danced upon the great mountain.

Stringed instruments such as the vīṇā, solid instruments such as bronze cymbals, / wind instruments such as flutes, and percussion instruments such as drums—

a tumultuous fourfold music then arose, / of rhythmic beats, paṭaha drums, and hand gestures,

and the forms of the measures and musical patterns appeared visible to the eyes, / melodious, well-tuned, open, very deep, and loudly resounding.

Viśvāvasu, Nārada, and Tumburu, singers / and lords of gandharvas, sang, along with sweet-voiced apsarases.

Equipped with the three parent scales and endowed with the seven notes, / divine, pure, and intentional singing proceeded there.

Struck by the soles of Hara's feet, the mountain too let out a great roar, / spinning the earth, along with its cities and forests, in dizzying circles.

Sadāśiva created eighty-four hand-gestures, / and from the sweat of his forehead-plate [he brought forth] sūtas, māgadhas, and bards.

From the heart of the Great Lord arose the Gandharvas, singers of the universe; / they embodied the God of gods, accompanied by sweet melodies and stages.

By their vigor they produced wonder among the watching seers; / here the Kinnaras showered flowers by their own natural talents.

When the dance had thus continued for four months, / [the rainy season] passed away, and autumn arrived, adorned with a clear sky, / lotus-faced with lakes completely covered by clusters of lotuses,

and with the hue of her countenance slightly pale on account of fruit-bearing trees and herbs.

Then, on the fourteenth day of the bright half of Ūrja, Girijā became propitious; / having completed the observance of his vow, Īśvara too shone forth at that time.

Then, with blooming eyes and voice, she said to Śambhu: / "When the liṅga falls down, brought low by the curse of the brahmins,

it will arise in the waters of the Narmadā and will be worshipped by all the world." / Having spoken thus, she, being pleased, then made a hymn of praise to Hara:

"Obeisance to you, the God of gods, Mahādeva, the crested one, / the supporter of the world, the progenitor, Śaṃkara, and Śiva!

Obeisance to you, the matted-haired one, born of the undefeated, whose womb is the absolute, / the golden-seeded one! Obeisance to you, the blue-throated one!

Obeisance to the deity favorable to brahmins, the bearer of white sacred ash, / the five-faced one, the embodied, and repeatedly obeisance to the formless!

Obeisance to the thousand-eyed, the radiant! Obeisance to you who are clad in animal skins, / the liberator of the demon Andhaka, the Lord of Beasts!

Obeisance repeatedly to the source of the mouths of brahmins and fire, to Hara, Bhava, / Śaṃkara, the Great Lord, and Īśvara!

To the form of the unmanifest absolute, the animator of embodied beings, / obeisance to Śiva, to the fierce, to Hara, and to Bhava!

Obeisance to Kṛṣṇa, to Śarva, the destroyer of Tripura, the ravager! / Obeisance to Aghora! Obeisance to you, the Puruṣa!

Obeisance to you, Sadyojāta! O Vāmadeva, obeisance to you! / Obeisance to you, Īśāna, the five-faced bearer of the skull!

To the odd-eyed, to existence itself, the smiter of Bhaga's eyes, / the smiter of Pūṣan's teeth, the destroyer of the great sacrifice!

To the hunter of the deer, to righteousness, the wheel of Time, the wielder of the discus, / worthy of worship by the Great Person, obeisance to the lord of the gaṇas!

To the bearer of the Gaṅgā, the merciful, who brings delight to Bhavānī, / the giver of joy to the world, whose nature is the absolute: obeisance to you!

To the one beyond attributes, yet possessing attributes, subtle and also the preceptor, / obeisance to the great form, the source of ashes!

Obeisance to the eternal embodiment of dispassion, the master of yoga! / O God, O destroyer of the god of love, whatever unpleasant thing was uttered by me,

you ought to forgive, O Lord of the universe; with my head bowed I propitiate you. / Indeed, this grace in the guise of a curse was granted by you; of this there is no doubt.

No wrath arising from my offense should be held by you, O sinless one!" / Thus propitiated, Śambhu, gladdened in soul along with the gods,

filled with supreme bliss upon crossing the observance of the vow, said to Umā: / "Whoever with devotion will recite this praise of me that has issued from you, / O Pārvatī, there shall be no separation from what is dear for him.

Endowed with wealth for three births, free from all diseases, / having enjoyed various delights in this world, in the end he will go to my abode."

Having spoken thus, the Great Lord gave her his own half of the body. / Pārvatī received that left half, which belongs to Viṣṇu:

Śarva holding a skull in his hand, with poison on one half of his neck, / wearing half a garland of severed heads, fair and white all around,

the originator of millions of cosmic eggs, his head adorned with matted locks, / shining with the white luster of the crescent moon and the brilliance of gems,

adorned with golden ornaments, having a snake-armlet on one side, / an animal skin as garment on one side, and fine silk like cloth on the other,

equipped with the fish-vehicle on one side, marked by a bull on the other, / served by attendants on one side, and attended by female companions on the other.

Beholding such a form, the hosts of deities headed by Brahmā / praised with supreme devotion the one whose eyes were adorned with splendor:

"You alone are the Lord, the all-pervading among all embodied beings; / like a father you are the protector, you are the mother, named as the individual soul.

You are the witness, the seed of the universe, the subduer of the cosmic egg; / millions of cosmic eggs arise and dissolve in you,

like waves constantly in the ocean, or bubbles in water. / Sometimes [I, Brahmā, arise] from your eye, sometimes from your forehead,

and sometimes, in union with the goddess Śivā, having manifested, I create the world. / We, the gods headed by Brahmā, are all doers of your command.

You are of infinite majesty, endless, of infinite abode, limitless; / boundless, you assume a wondrous form for the destruction of all.

O Bhavānī, you are fear constantly, making pure the uninauspicious; / you are the giver of auspicious things, and you are the fruit of austerities.

He who is Śiva is himself Viṣṇu; he who is Viṣṇu is Sadāśiva. / Thus the awareness of non-difference has arisen, in some small measure, in us through your grace.

Whatever is seen or heard in this world, / having pervaded all of that within and without, when you abide,

O one worshipped by the world, ruler of the gods, praised by the world, and Ambikā! / Grant your favor, O queen of the gods, O Lord of gods! We are bowed down [before you]."

Having spoken thus, all the thirty gods, delighted, departed as they had come.

Gālava said: / "Those mortals on earth who reflect in their minds upon that divine, matchless form, / the sole boat for crossing the ocean of worldly existence, / with sins removed and attachments relinquished, attain the nature of the absolute."

Thus ends the two hundred fifty-fourth chapter, named 'Description of Hara's Tāṇḍava Dance', in the Cāturmāsya-māhātmya within the narrative of Śeṣaśāyin, in the conversation between Brahmā and Nārada, in the Māhātmya of the Hāṭakeśvara Sacred Field, in the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, the sixth [part] of the Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.