Skandapurana 5.86

Sūta said: / Now, there is also another [goddess] there, named Saptaviṃśatikā, / installed by the lunar mansions, the giver of what is desired.

Formerly, the daughters of Dakṣa, twenty-seven in number, / were married to Soma, O best of brahmins.

Among them, Rohiṇī alone was his beloved, / dearer to him than his own life; he remained constantly attached to her.

Then, distressed by their misfortune, all those daughters of Dakṣa / attained extreme detachment and engaged in austerity in this sacred field.

Having installed the goddess Durgā, endowed with supreme faith, / they worshipped that ruler of the gods with animal offerings, rites, and gifts.

Then, after a great deal of time, she was pleased with them, / and said: "I am highly pleased; I will grant a boon, O daughters!

Therefore, ask for whatever is in your mind; / I shall grant without a doubt whatever is established in your heart."

Then all of them said: "By your favor, O goddess, / we have everything desired that exists in the three worlds,

except for the single happiness of a husband which arises from good fortune in marriage. / Therefore grant that to us, if you are pleased, O Caṇḍikā.

Owing to the fault of misfortune in love, we have all fallen into supreme misery; / we are unable to preserve our dear breath in our bodies by any means."

The goddess said: / "From this day forward, by my grace, the good fortune / derived from a husband and bringing joy will undoubtedly be yours.

Any other woman abandoned by her husband who worships me residing here always, / with true devotion, having fasted on the fourteenth day,

shall be endowed with good fortune, virtuous, and blessed with sons, / if she remains devoted to eating only one meal a day for a year.

The woman who worships me eating food without alkaline substances or salt / shall have no sorrow caused by her husband, nor misfortune.

When the ninth day arrives in the bright fortnight of Āśvina, / she who, intent on fasting, worships me at midnight / shall certainly have immense good fortune for all time."

Having spoken thus, O best of the twice-born, the goddess fell silent; / and all of them, extremely delighted, went to Dakṣa's house.

In the meantime, Dakṣa was summoned by the trident-bearer / and asked: "Why have you afflicted Candra with consumption? / That was an improper act done by you, O Dakṣa, since he is your son-in-law."

Dakṣa said: / "He married my daughters, twenty-eight in number, / women of unbroken conduct; but he abandoned those faultless ones, / except for Rohiṇī alone, O God, though repeatedly forbidden by me.

Therefore, in intense anger, I afflicted him with pulmonary consumption, / as he was a speaker of untruth, a fool subjugated by Kāmadeva."

The blessed Lord said: / "From this day forward he will treat all of them equally, / on my word; of this there is no doubt; this truth has been spoken by me.

Even so, the word spoken by you should never become untrue anywhere; / therefore he shall undergo waning for one fortnight, and waxing for one fortnight."

Dakṣa also said, "So be it," and having spoken that, went home. / Candra, however, treats those daughters of Dakṣa equally at all times,

undergoing waning for one fortnight and waxing for one fortnight, O good twice-born. / That goddess, established in that sacred field, / is therefore called Saptaviṃśatikā on earth, granting all good fortune to women.

And whoever, having purified himself, recites this [text] with devotion in her presence / when the eighth day arrives, shall obtain good fortune.

Thus ends the eighty-sixth chapter, titled 'Description of the Glory of Saptaviṃśatikā', in the Māhātmya of Hāṭakeśvara Kṣetra, in the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, the sixth [part] in the Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses, the glorious Skandapurāṇa.