Skandapurana 5.5

Sūta said: / Hearing that statement of Brahmā, Viśvāmitra was filled with wrath. / He said this to the Grandfather: "Behold the power of my austerity!

Having officiated at a sacrifice for Triśaṅku according to the rules, accompanied by generous gifts, / I will bring him here by means of that sacrifice, while you look on, O Grandfather!"

Having spoken thus and gone swiftly to the surface of the earth,
Viśvāmitra made an effort to perform the sacrifice for the great-souled Triśaṅku.

Having summoned brahmins who had mastered the Vedas,
he administered the initiation at the time proper for the rite, in that very auspicious forest.

The wise sage himself became the adhvaryu priest in the sacrificial rite;
in it, Śāṇḍilya was the hotṛ, and Gautama was the brahmā.

The āgnīdhra was named Cyavana; the active maitrāvaruṇa was [another];
Yājñavalkya was the udgātṛ, and Jaimini was the pratihartṛ.

Śaṅkuvarṇa was the prastotṛ, and likewise Gālava was the unnetṛ;
Pulastya was the brāhmaṇācchaṃsin, and Garga, the lord of sages, was a hotṛ.

Atri was the neṣṭṛ, and Bhṛgu himself was the acchāvāka.
Filled with faith, Triśaṅku appointed all of them as priests.

They were adorned with garments, diadems, and armlets.
Having shaved his hair, wearing a black antelope skin,

holding a blackbuck's horn, and devoted to the milk-fast vow,
he then engaged them all for the long sacrificial session.

And when that long sacrificial session had begun in the proper manner,
celestial brahmins who had mastered the Vedas and Vedāṅgas arrived,

as well as other logicians, curious householders,
the destitute, the blind, the wretched, and various actors and dancers.

“Let it be given, let it be given quickly to them!”—only this [was heard]:
“Eat, eat, O people! Partake of the favor!”

Such a great clamor was constantly heard there
always in that sacrificial enclosure, and never anything else.

There, artificial mountains made of grain were seen,
and especially of gold, silver, and jewels,

for donation to the chief brahmins, as well as countless cows,
likewise tame horses, and rutting, great elephants

arranged on all sides, resembling mountains, were seen there.
While that very extensive great sacrifice was proceeding,

the deities, though summoned for their sacrificial share, did not approach;
they received his oblation solely through the mouth of the fire.

In this way twelve years passed for that king as he sacrificed,
yet the desired fruit of his heart was not obtained.

Then, having performed the purificatory bath that marks the end of a sacrificial session,
and having gratified the priests with fees according to their worth,

Triśaṅku dismissed all of them, as well as the others who had gathered,
his relatives and companions, O best of sages.

Then, humble and filled with embarrassment,
that king, bowing down before him, spoke to the lord of sages, Viśvāmitra:

“By your grace, O holy one, I have attained the complete fruit
arising from a long sacrificial session, which is difficult for all mortals to attain.

Likewise, my [original] caste was obtained once again, though it had been lost, O good sage;
by your grace, O brahmin-seer, the state of an outcaste was destroyed.

Yet one single grief remains embedded in my heart like a dart:
that I have not reached heaven in this very body.

The sons of Vasiṣṭha will mock me, O sage,
when they hear today that my effort was useless and that I have not reached heaven.

Likewise, that statement of Vasiṣṭha stands proven true,
which he spoke: ‘One does not go to heaven with a physical body by means of a sacrifice.’

Therefore, taking refuge in the forest, I shall now perform austerity;
I will not again govern the kingdom, which has been entrusted to my son.”

Thus ends the fifth chapter, titled “Viśvāmitra’s Performance of the Twelve-Year Sacrifice for Triśaṅku to Ascend to Heaven in Bodily Form,” in the story of Triśaṅku, in the glorification of the Hāṭakeśvara sacred field, in the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, the sixth [book] in the eighty-one-thousand-verse collection of the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa.