Skandapurana 5.70

Sūta said: / Likewise, there is also another śakti [spear] there that destroys sin, / released by Kārtikeya after slaying Tāraka in battle. // 1

Likewise, there is a very large pool filled with clear water, / created right there by him; whoever bathes [in it] and worships her [the śakti] / is immediately freed from sin committed from birth until death. // 2

The seers said: / At what time was that spear released by him? Tell us. / For what purpose [was it cast] there by the lord? What is its power? Tell [us] yourself. // 3

Sūta said: / Formerly, there was a dānava named Tāraka, endowed with immense strength, / an heir of Hiraṇyākṣa, who caused terror to the three worlds. // 4

Knowing that his father had been destroyed by the mighty Viṣṇu, / he then went to Mount Gokarṇa and performed severe austerity. // 5

For up to a thousand years he remained, feeding on withered leaves, / meditating on Mahādeva with body, mind, and speech, // 6

and then with various offerings, gifts of worship, and food oblations. / Then, at the end of the thousand years, that daitya, filled with grief, // 7

knowing Rudra to be ungratified, performed terrible austerity: / cutting off his own flesh, he offered it into the fire. // 8

Gratified by that, Mahādeva, the lord of Umā mounted on the bull, / went to appear before him together with all his gaṇas. // 9

There, delighted, making all the directions resound / with a loud sound, Mahādeva spoke with a voice faltering with joy: // 10

“Hail, hail, Tāraka! I am pleased; do [not] perform such reckless daring! / Request your heart’s desire, so that I may grant it to you.” // 11

Tāraka said: / “O lord, by your favor, act in such a way that in battle / I may be unconquerable by all the gods, leaving you aside.” // 12

The Lord said: / “By my favor, all this will come to pass beyond doubt, / as requested by you, O daitya; you alone shall be strong here.” // 13

Having spoken thus, Mahādeva went to his own abode, / and Tāraka too, delighted, went likewise to his own palace. // 14

Then, surrounded by a vast army of dānavas, / he set out to fight towards Indra’s city, the renowned Amarāvatī. // 15

Then a great battle took place between the gods and the dānavas, / ending only with death, turning back at the close of a thousand years. // 16

There, the destruction of the gods occurred constantly at the forefront of the battle, / while the dānavas were victorious, by the grace of the wielder of the trident. // 17

Then those dwellers of heaven devised means for victory: / diverse armors, war machines, and trenches, // 18

and others too, diligently made to protect the body, / especially for the foremost of warriors, O best of brahmins! // 19

Those lords of the gods produced [them] day and night against the dānavas: // 20

clubs, slings, śataghnīs, excellent arrows, / javelins, spears, and missile points were fashioned at that time, / as well as arrays of battle formations specific to combat, // 21

and likewise other multifaceted deceptive tactics in large numbers: / terrors, magic tricks, and all forms of illusory nets. // 22

Even so, they did not attain victory, O best of brahmins; / they were battered by blows from the dānavas in the great battle. // 23

Then the thousand-eyed [Indra], terrified by fear, spoke to Bṛhaspati: / “Day after day we are conquered by the daityas, O best of brahmins! // 24

The more I employ proper strategies for the sake of battle, / the more my defeat occurs in the great combat. // 25

Therefore, O teacher of the gods, devise a strategy with your intellect, / whereby victory in battle may be mine, and blameless fame may be yours.” // 26

Sūta said: / Then Bṛhaspati, having meditated for a long time, spoke to the lord of Śacī, / with a joyful face, having understood the means of victory in the great combat: // 27

“O Indra, I have discovered that means in the great combat, / by which the enemies are easily conquered, even in great numbers. // 28

When he requested the desired boon from the destroyer of Tripura, / he then spoke these words, bowing repeatedly: // 29

‘O lord, by your favor, act in such a way that in battle / I may be unconquerable by all the gods, leaving you aside.’ // 30
Mahādeva himself will not destroy his own disciple; / for having planted even a poisonous tree, who cuts it down himself? // 31

‘He who is the father becomes the son’—such is the celebrated Vedic statement. / Therefore, let Hara quickly beget a son who will cause his destruction, // 32

by which, having appointed him to the command of the army, we may wage / a great battle against the daityas with weapons, and then attain victory. // 33

This alone is the means proclaimed by me here to you / for victory, O thousand-eyed one; there is no other in the three worlds.” // 34

Then the subduer of Pāka, accompanied by all the hosts of gods, / spoke of that matter to Śambhu, standing bowed down in humility: // 35

“Make an effort to beget a son, O bull-bannered god, / so that I may appoint him to the command of the army of the celestials, // 36

and by your grace I may attain victory in battle, / having slain all the dānavas together with Tāraka. // 37

In no other way can there be victory for me in battle against the dānavas; / so the highly intelligent preceptor of the gods told me, having properly discerned it.” // 38

Then Śaṃkara, laughing aloud, said to the lord of the thirty [gods]: / “I will carry out your word swiftly, O Indra; of this there is no doubt.” // 39

"I shall produce a son who will destroy all the Daityas, / whom you will make commander-in-chief and thereby obtain victory always."

Having spoken thus, Mahādeva went to Mount Kailāsa, / and then with Gaurī engaged in the duty of love as was proper,

accompanied by gestures and moods, and other laughs natural to it, / for the duration of a thousand divine years, like the twinkling of an eye.

Then all the hosts of gods, their minds terrified with fear, / held counsel for that purpose, oppressed as they were by Tāraka:

"A thousand years have passed while the Trident-bearer has been absorbed in pleasure, / yet the task of the gods has not been accomplished by him.

Therefore let us go there where the god Maheśvara / resides together with Gaurī, staying in a secluded place on Kailāsa."

Then all the gods along with Indra went right there, / bearing supreme distress born from the enemy Tāraka.

Then, having reached Kailāsa, as they were approaching Hara's presence, / they were stopped by Nandin: "You must not go beyond this.

The Lord is situated in privacy together with Pārvatī. / Even we cannot go [there]; therefore do not go!"

Then the Wind was dispatched there by all those gods, / saying: "Let it be quickly ascertained what Mahādeva is doing."

Then the Wind went there where the Lord Śiva sat, / absorbed in pleasure with Gaurī, having attained supreme bliss.

Then, as the semen had stirred from its place without having reached the womb, / the Wind, standing not very far away, was seen by the god.

Then, overcome with shame, he arose that very moment, / abandoning his beloved who was absorbed in passion and saying, "Do not, do not get up!"

He then spoke to the Wind who was standing bowed in modesty: / "For what purpose have you come here? Is all well with the gods?"

The Wind said: / "These gods, Indra and the others, turned back by Nandin, / their enthusiasm destroyed by Tāraka, are waiting at the base of the mountain.

Therefore, having addressed them and respectfully consoled them, / send [them] quickly to where those Dānavas are stationed."

Then the destroyer of Tripura summoned them immediately; / with a dejected face, he addressed them as they stood with folded hands:

The Lord said: / "The undertaking made by me for your sake, for the sake of a son, / when the semen stirred from its place, has today been made vain by the Wind.

This semen was arrested with firm resolve by me within the liṅga; / it remains entirely unfailing. Let it be declared where I may deposit it,

so that an excellent son may be born, the destroyer of Dānavas, / and your commander-in-chief, unassailable in battle by enemies.

No other is able to bear this, which resembles the cosmic fire of dissolution, / except Vaiśvānara; therefore let him bear this eternal [seed],

so that I may release it there for a son and for victory, / this exceedingly fierce seed equal in brilliance to twelve suns."

Then all the gods, praising the Fire, respectfully said: / "O Fire, hold in your mouth this seed sprung from Bhava."

Then the Fire quickly opened his mouth, / executing Indra's command with an unhesitating mind.

Śaṃkara also discharged it there, afflicted by the arrows of Kāma, / meditating on the goddess Gaurī, having attained supreme bliss.

The Fire too, intensely burned by it which was like the fire of cosmic dissolution, / dropped it upon the ground into a vast clump of reeds.

Meanwhile, wandering here and there, / the wives of the six sages, the six auspicious Kṛttikās, arrived there.

Indra himself instructed them: / "This seed of the Three-eyed God is to be preserved with effort.

Here a son will be produced, equal in brilliance to twelve suns; / he will also essentially attain the status of son to you all."

Thus ends the seventieth chapter, entitled 'Description of the Account of the Origin of Kārttikeya', in the Māhātmya of Hāṭakeśvara Sacred Field, in the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, the sixth [part] of the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand [verses].