Skandapurana 5.78

The seers said: / In what place there, O Sūta, was austerity performed by Brahmā, / and by all those Vālakhilyas, sages celebrated for their vows? (1)

Sūta said: / In the north-western quarter of that altar of Hara, O best of the twice-born, / austerity was performed by Brahmā with proper faith and diligence, (2)

and in the west by the Vālakhilyas devoted to recitation and ritual ablution. / What wonderful thing indeed took place there formerly, O best of brahmins, / in the hermitage of the four-faced one, that I shall now tell you. (3)

There, a certain unchaste woman born of a brahmin lineage, / having met her lover Devadatta, would constantly take pleasure at night. (4)

Unnoticed by her husband, by her mother, and also by other relatives, / taking advantage of the dark fortnight, she was delighted at heart in a solitary place. (5)

Then, after some time, she was seen by someone, O twice-born ones, / staying there united with her paramour, and she was reported to her husband. (6)

Then her husband, filled with wrath, reviled her with very harsh words / and struck her with blows. (7)

Then she, having resorted to boldness according to womanly nature, / spoke with her eyes filled with tears, standing with her hands joined piteously: (8)

“Why do you strike me with harsh blows on the word of a wicked person, / [me] who am free from fault, bowed down at your feet, O lord? (9)

I will make you confident by taking an oath, or by consuming poison, / or by entering the carrier of oblations.” (10)

Then the brahmin said to her: “If you are free from sin, / yourself undergo an ordeal in the presence of the gods and the brahmins.” (11)

Agreeing with “So be it”, she, endowed with audacity, / then underwent the ordeal in accordance with the prescribed rule, seemingly virtuous. (12)

And the evil-doer attained purification in front of all her relatives, the twice-born, / her elders, and even the gods. (13)

At that moment, great applause arose for her, / and a cry of 'Fie!' was given by all in harsh censure to the husband: (14)

“Oh, wicked is the conduct of this vile, wretched brahmin, / who falsely accuses his sinless lawful wife of fault!” (15)

Thus being reproached by all the people, O best of the twice-born, / he then, greatly distressed, directed his anger toward the Fire. (16)

Greatly distressed, he then set his mind on giving a curse to the Fire; / reviling him again and again, he spoke harsh words: (17)

“She was directly seen by me myself united with her paramour; / why, O Fire, was this deeply sinful woman not reduced to ashes by you? (18)

Therefore, you evil-doer, who take the side of untruth, / I will undoubtedly curse now with a terrible curse.” (19)

Sūta said: / Hearing those words of that enraged twice-born man, / the Seven-Flamed One, terrified with fear, said to him with folded hands: (20)

Agni said: / “This is not my fault, O brahmin, that your beloved was not burned; / even though she committed an offense, listen to my word clearly spoken in this matter. (21)

Union with another lover was made by her / for a long time, O best of the twice-born; it was known by you only today. (22)

Yet because she was purified, she was not burned by me, O twice-born one; / and the reason for that I tell you: listen with an attentive mind. (23)

Where union was made by her with another lover, O twice-born one, / in that sanctuary Brahmā is situated having the head of Rudra. (24)

Having engaged in extraordinary lovemaking there with another lover at that time, / she then beheld Rudra situated on the head of Brahmā. (25)

Then she washes her body in the pool situated right in front of it; / though having committed sin, she of radiant smile attains purity by that. (26)

Here formerly Brahmā, the grandfather of the worlds, became free from sin, / even though having committed sin, afflicted with passion upon beholding the face of Satī. (27)

Therefore there is not even the slightest fault on my part in this, O best of the twice-born; / this is the power of the head of Rudra and of the water of that pool. (28)

Therefore, taking this [wife] completely purified and free from sin, / go home, O best of the twice-born; this is the truth spoken by me.” (29)

The brahmin said: / “She who was seen by myself suddenly, O consumer of oblations, / with another lover, I will not take home today, even if she is purified.” (30)

Having said this, that best of the twice-born, of pure vows, abandoning her, / went to his own home; afterwards, the people also went to their homes. (31)

She too, abandoned by that husband, delighted at heart, / having learned the greatness of that sacred ford spoken from the mouth of Vaiśvānara, (32)

engaged all the more in the act of lovemaking with that very paramour / in that sanctuary, and bathed in the water of the pool. (33)

Then others, strictly abiding [in virtue] out of great fear of the next world, / turned away from other men's wives, and women likewise were devoted to their husbands. (34)

Coming together even from afar, they all engaged in sexual pleasure in that temple, / which bore the name Rudraśīrṣa.

Then they would bathe in that pond that destroys sins; / they became freed from sin through the darśana of Rudraśīrṣa.

Meanwhile, the dharma born of marriage was lost / among men, and so among women was the [dharma] born of their own husbands.

Whatever beautiful woman one saw, even if born of a noble family, / bringing her there, O best of brahmins, he enjoyed her with delight.

Likewise, whatever very handsome man a woman saw anywhere, / she too, bringing him there, engaged in sexual pleasure.

And neither a man nor a woman was smeared with the sin committed by that / in any way, by the power of that tīrtha.

Then at a certain time there was born a king named Vidūratha / in the territory of Ānarta, and in due course he grew old.

His wife was slender, youthful, endowed with exquisite beauty, / dearer to him than his own life, when he had reached his advanced age.

That king, seized by old age, did not abide in her heart; / coming to that tīrtha, a man enjoyed the beloved woman.

The king too, learning of that behavior of hers, / filled with rage, then went to that auspicious sacred field.

He quickly filled up that pond with heaps of dust, / and smashed that temple; then he uttered a terrible [curse]:

“Whoever digs out this pond that has been filled with dust / and makes this temple new again,

to him shall accrue all the sin committed with another's wife / that men delusion-struck by lust shall commit here.”

Sūta said: / Having spoken thus, that king, taking that beloved woman, / then went to his own house with a delighted mind.

Then, knowing that beloved wife to be detached and her mind elsewhere, the king / guarded her with effort; he placed no trust [in her] at all.

On another day, concealing a small weapon in her braid of hair, / that fair woman went to his bed in order to kill him.

Then, having laughed with him as befits a kṣatriya's nature, / [she engaged in] lovemaking with charming sentiments and many flirtatious gestures.

Then, when that king had fallen under the sway of sleep, that king's beloved, / taking the weapon from her braid, pitilessly struck him down.

Thus immediately arose that terrible fruit, condemned by all the world, / resulting from the destruction of the tīrtha for the lord of Ānarta.

Even today, that lord of the gods, Rudraśīrṣa, stands there; / it was not broken by him out of fear of breaking a liṅga, O best of brahmins.

Whoever, standing before it, purified, recites the Rudraśiras / on the fourteenth day of the bright fortnight of Māgha, after worshiping with garlands and other offerings,

quickly obtains what is desired by the power of that Lord. / Whoever, standing before it, recites up to one hundred and eight times

the Rudraśīrṣa, goes without doubt to the highest state; / or whatever man, a twice-born, recites it once before it,

is freed from the sin committed on that day every day, O best of brahmins. / All this origin of Rudraśīrṣa has been recounted to you,

a māhātmya that brings about the immediate destruction of all sins, / supremely auspicious, granting long life, and enhancing renown; / therefore, the māhātmya of Rudraśīrṣa should be heard with devotion.

Thus ends the seventy-eighth chapter, named ‘Description of the Māhātmya of Rudraśīrṣa (Jāgeśvara)’, in the Māhātmya of the Sacred Field of Śrī Hāṭakeśvara, in the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, the sixth [section], in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.