Skandapurana 5.56

Sūta said: / By seeing Sāmbāditya, the lord of gods, situated not very far from him, / a mortal obtains all the desires dwelling in his heart. (1)

A mortal who beholds him with devotion on the seventh [tithi] of the bright [fortnight] of Māgha, / on a Sunday, does not see the hells. (2)

Formerly there was a brahmin named Gālava, a great sage, / constantly dedicated to Vedic study, who had crossed to the far shore of the Vedas and Vedāṅgas. (3)

Devoted to pure vows, tranquil, dedicated to the gods and brahmins, / grateful, of good conduct, and skilled in sacrificial rites. (4)

As he was living thus, advanced age arrived / while he was sonless, O best of brahmins; therefore sorrow was born [in him]. (5)

Then, having abandoned all household duties, that devoted man, / with a concentrated mind, worshipped the sun right in this sacred field. (6)

Taking shelter of a banyan tree, endowed with supreme faith, / having installed an image of the Sun according to the rules stated in the Pāñcarātra, (7)

lying in the open air during the rains, dwelling in water in winter, / performing the five-fire penance in summer, without food, with senses subdued. (8)

Then, when the fifteenth year arrived, the divine Sun, / taking shelter of the banyan tree, spoke to him who stood nearby: (9)

The glorious Sūrya said: / "I am a giver of boons today; hail to you! Request a boon, O Gālava. / Even if it is exceedingly difficult to obtain, I will give it to you quickly without doubt." (10)

Gālava said: / "O best among gods, I am sonless and situated in advanced age; / therefore give me an excellent son who will increase my lineage." (11)

The glorious Sūrya said: / "O brahmin, you will have a son who will increase your lineage, / radiant, renowned, knowledgeable in the scriptures, and a master of the Vedas. (12)

Since this image of me was made by you near Sāmbasūrya, / it will be known by the name 'Sāmbasūrya' on the surface of the earth. (13)

Any other person as well, endowed with faith, who worships him / on a Sunday that is a seventh [tithi], for twelve suns, (14)

and seventh [tithis], O best of brahmins, fasting with devotion, / will without doubt obtain a son who enhances his lineage." (15)

Having spoken thus, the sun drawn by seven horses ceased speaking; / and Gālava, his heart overjoyed, went to his own abode.

Then, before much time had passed, a son was born to him / as promised by that god, endowed with all auspicious marks.

Then the father himself gave him the name Vaṭeśvara, / because he had been granted by the ray-garlanded [sun] who was pleased, standing at the banyan tree (vaṭa).

Seeing the sons and grandsons of Vaṭeśvara, O best of brahmins, / Gālava attained the sun, having performed vast austerity.

Vaṭeśvara, too, knowing that the sun had been established by his father, / had a very charming temple constructed for him.

From that time forward in the world, known by the name Vaṭāditya, / he became renowned throughout the three worlds as a granter of sons to the childless.

Devoted to fasting on the seventh lunar day (saptamī) coinciding with a Sunday, / whoever worships him with devotion on twelve successive seventh days, / obtains an excellent son who enhances his lineage.

Or whatever man, free from desire, worships him, / he will surely attain liberation, hard even for the gods to reach.

Now, a song was formerly sung by the celestial seer Nārada / upon beholding that son-granting god, the lord of gods, Vaṭāditya:

“Even a woman a hundred years old, barren, or unfortunate / will at once become pregnant through the grace of Sāmbāditya.

What need of gifts, what of vows and meditations, what of recitations with fasts, / for the sake of a son, while Sāmbāditya, the lord of gods, is present?”

The man who with devotion beholds [him] on a Sunday for one year, / finding leisure here, obtains a son and supreme happiness.

Therefore, O brahmins, with every effort one should diligently behold that god / for one’s own welfare and for the increase of one’s lineage.

Thus ends the fifty-sixth chapter, named “Description of the Māhātmya of Sāmbāditya,” in the Māhātmya of the Sacred Field of Śrī Hāṭakeśvara, in the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, the sixth [part] of the eighty-one-thousand-verse collection of the glorious Skandapurāṇa.