Skandapurana 5.267

Ānarta said: / Tell [me], by what action among mortals does there arise for men / complete universal sovereignty that crushes all enemies?

Bhartṛyajña said: / Kingship is difficult to attain by all sins, O king of men, / [and is won] through austerities, religious restraints, gifts, and likewise other auspicious vows.

He who, having become a king, gives a golden earth / in the presence of the god Gautameśvara with faith, / surely becomes a universal emperor; so said the grandfather [Brahmā].

Māndhātṛ, Dhundhumāra, Hariścandra, Purūravas, / Bharata, and Kārtavīrya—these are the six universal emperors.

Having in ancient times made the gift of the earth in the presence of Gautameśvara, / having given a golden earth, they consequently stood as emperors over the whole earth.

Ānarta said: / O venerable one, by what rite should that earth be given? / I will certainly give it; great faith resides in me.

Bhartṛyajña said: / The earth should be made of one hundred palas, circular in shape, O best of kings; / or with half of that, or according to one's capacity, consisting of twenty-five palas.

In making the gift of the earth, O great king, one should avoid stinginess regarding wealth; / it should never be given below five palas under any circumstances. / The oceans arising from salt, sugarcane juice, liquor, ghee, curds, milk, and water— / one should display these seven oceans within its zone there.

The [continents of] Jambū, Plakṣa, Kuśa, Krauñca, Śāka, Śālmali, and Puṣkara, / the oceans, and the seven rivers one should fashion, each doubling in size.

Mahendra, Malaya, Sahya, Himavat, Gandhamādana,
Vindhya, and Śṛṅgin: one should fashion precisely these seven principal mountain ranges.
In the center, one should fashion Meru, and in the cardinal directions, the supporting mountains;
likewise the trees: the rose-apple, the banyan, the kadamba, and the plakṣa.

There one should fashion the rivers, foremost among them the Gaṅgā.
Having thus fashioned the entire earth made of gold, O king,
one should then cause a pavilion to be built, constructed as described before.

Sacrificial pits and archways indeed for worship of the brahmins and planets—
having made everything as before, one should fashion an altar in the middle.

There one should set down the earth with the five products of the cow, O king,
accompanied by the prescribed mantras matching the marks, and then with pure water,

[reciting] 'imaṃ me gaṅge yamune,' the 'pañca nadyaḥ,' the 'tripuṣkaram,'
the Śrīsūkta, and the Pāvamāna hymn; and then the golden [earth] [one should bathe],

with portions suitable for the rite of bathing, [and with] the supreme 'svādiṣṭhayā' [hymn].

Having thus bathed it according to rule, one should clothe it in garments,
fine and diverse, with the mantra 'yuvā suvāsāḥ'.

Having thus recited 'ye bhūtānām,' one should then worship it.
With concentrated mind, one should offer incense with the mantra 'dhūr asi'.

Then one should perform the waving of lights with the mantra 'agnir jyotiḥ'.
With the mantra 'aham asmi,' one should arrange the seven grains.

Having performed all this for her, the patron, dressed in white garments,
standing before her with joined palms, should utter these mantras:

'By you the universe is upheld, this entire moving and unmoving world.
I shall make a gift of you; grant your presence, O Earth!

Even in the bodies of living beings, O goddess, you exist first;
and then the other elements, beginning with water, O Earth!

Those who give you, obtain you again, without a doubt,
in this world and in the next, resting in royal form.'

Having thus praised her and taken water, O king, [and] the golden form,
fixing Vāsudeva in one's heart, one should dedicate it with this mantra:

'By whom that earth was lifted up from Pātāla, the creator of the world—
by the gift of this [earth], may Janārdana always be pleased with me!'

Having spoken thus, one should cast that water into the midst of water,
not on the ground, nor into the hand of the brahmin, O best of kings.

Then one should dismiss the goddess in parts with this mantra:
'You have arrived according to proper method and have been worshipped according to rule.

For our welfare, go wherever it is desired.'
Having recited beyond that with the mantra 'usrā veda,'
it is to be given to the brahmins after dividing it, O ruler of men.

Thus has the supreme gift of the earth been entirely recounted to you.
The king who hears it will become a giver [of land] birth after birth.

Whatever king gives the earth according to this rite, O ruler of the earth,
fall from kingship never occurs, even in his lineage.

Those rulers of the earth who are seen to suffer the loss of their kingdom—
by them the earth was not given to self-controlled brahmins.

Therefore, with every effort one should perform the gift of the earth,
and one must never, in any way, take away land given by another.

This is meritorious and praiseworthy, the supreme gift of the earth;
even for those who hear of it, O king of kings, it destroys the sins of the body and beyond.

Let alone the gift of the earth by a ruler of the earth:
even instigating the donor of it destroys the flood of ignorance.

Handsome, fortunate, and pleasing in appearance,
freed from mental anguish and physical disease, accompanied by sons and grandsons,

intelligent does a mortal become by the power of this gift.
Having become like this, O great king, and having ruled an unthreatened kingdom,

they go, satisfied, to the eternal, painless abode of Viṣṇu.
From the gift of the earth even elsewhere, one would attain universal emperorship

for the duration of a single subsequent birth, when properly given, O best of kings.
That which was formerly made in the presence of the god Gautameśvara

makes [one an emperor] for seven successive births, without a doubt.
Therefore, with every effort, the earth is to be given there, O king.

Thus ends the two hundred and sixty-eighth chapter, entitled 'Description of the Glory of the Gift of the Earth' in the Gautameśvara-māhātmya within the Hāṭakeśvarakṣetra-māhātmya, in the sixth Nāgarakhaṇḍa of the glorious Skandamahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.