Skandapurana 5.89

Sūta said: / When that group of Mothers was thus stationed there constantly, O twice-born ones, / destruction of children occurred in house after house of the brahmins,

especially of youth, to the north of Camatkārapura. / Searching for vulnerability, all those goddesses roamed about.

Then all those brahmins, recognizing the destruction of their children / arising from vulnerability, caused by the deities,

approached Ambā and Vṛddhā, worshipped them diligently, / and, burning with sorrow, bowing down in humility, said:

"For the protection of all the vipras, by King Camatkāra / this excellent, delightful palace was built for both of you.

Finding an opening, children by the thousands are carried off at night / on all sides by these deities belonging to you.

Therefore let favor be shown to the noble-minded brahmins; / otherwise, abandoning the city, we will depart elsewhere on earth."

Hearing their word, Ambā, filled with compassion, / struck the ground with a blow of her foot and then created a cave.

Placing her two wooden sandals therein, she then addressed all those deities / who bowed their whole bodies and were endowed with humility:

"These two divine wooden sandals of mine, staying always within the cave, / are to be served by all [of you], and you must never go outside.

Whichever [goddess], resorting to greed, should go out through delusion / shall be deprived of her divine nature and become a female jackal."

The deities said: / "O great goddess, who will perform worship for us in this place? / Or what shall be our food here? Therefore tell us, O ruler of the gods!"

Ambā said: / "Yogins, liberated and contemplating in meditation, coming here, / filled with devotion, will duly perform worship for you all.

Having first duly worshipped my two wooden sandals with meat, wine, and the like, in order, / they will attain perfection difficult to obtain even by the immortals."

Then, saying 'So be it', they stayed inside the cave, / surrounding those auspicious sandals of hers that bestow liberation.

Then, coming there even from afar, / men, having thoroughly worshipped the two wooden sandals and thereafter those Mothers, / go to supreme perfection, freed from birth and death.

In the meantime, the rites such as the Agniṣṭoma perished, / as did pilgrimages to sacred fords, observances, restraints, and rules.

Even those calm brahmins who always censured wine / themselves, with their own hands, with various kinds of wine

gratified [them], and with meat, abandoning all sacrificial rites, / [worshipping] the two wooden sandals attended by the Mothers, and likewise with incense and ointments.

In the meantime, all the gods, along with Indra, were terrified; / seeing the destruction of sacrificial rites, afflicted by hunger and thirst,

they went to Maheśvara and, standing bowed in humility, / having praised him with various sūktas and with the Śatarudriya uttered in the Veda, spoke.

The gods said: / "In the sacred field of Hāṭakeśvara, the two wooden sandals of Ambā / remain there along with the Mothers in a very secret cave.

Even brahmins, O Lord of the gods, with devotion and using wine and meat, / perform worship to both of them and attain the supreme state.

Now all righteous action has perished here in the world of mortals; / our destruction has come about without our sacrificial portion, O Lord!

Therefore, O Lord of the gods, act so that there may be destruction of the wooden sandals, / so that sacrifices may arise on earth and we may have supreme joy."

The Blessed Lord said: / "She who is known as Ambā is the Śakti, the Supreme Sovereign; / she is the Mother of the Universe, imperishable, manifest, and she is my mother too.

How, then, can destruction of her be accomplished by anyone, / even in thought, O fortunate ones—especially of her wooden sandals?

However, O rulers of the gods, I shall devise an easy remedy there, / whereby greatness may accrue to you and to the pair of wooden sandals."

Having spoken thus, the divine Maheśvara entered into meditation; / unfolding the eight-petaled lotus with its pericarp situated in the heart,

he perceived his own self seated within it, auspicious, the measure of a thumb's tip, / subtle, having the radiance of twelve suns.

As he was thus meditating, from his third eye then / came forth an auspicious, radiant maiden dressed in white garments.

Then, bowing down to that god Maheśvara, she said: / "For what purpose, O God, have I been created? Let my command be given!"

The Blessed Lord said: / "In the sacred field of Hāṭakeśvara, the two auspicious wooden sandals of the glorious Mother of the worlds, / the foremost one, are situated; do you perform worship to them.

Excepting a maiden born and raised in your lineage, / whoever else performs their worship shall become food for the Mothers.

With lifelong celibacy and with great devotion, / worship must be performed by you to the two of them; otherwise you will suffer destruction.

Those men intent on devotion who will perform your worship / shall be favored by the Mothers and always endowed with happiness."

Having spoken thus, he then explained to her properly the path of mantras / and particularly in detail the path of worship.

Then, having given an umbrella and other ornaments, and honors, / Mahādeva dismissed her and all those rulers of the gods.

The Maiden said: / "O God, you have said this: maidens born of your lineage / shall worship those two very splendid wooden sandals.

How will there be a lineage through celibacy from childhood? / You ought to explain all this to me in detail and as it truly is.

The Blessed Lord said: / Whichever maiden you, being pleased, speak / this aggregate of mantras to properly, she will become of your nature.

And in this way, O fortunate lady, other maidens in succession, / all born in your lineage, will arise through the mantra.

Then, having reached that cave where the wooden sandals arose, / she performed worship according to rule, just as spoken by the enemy of Tripura.

Sūta said: / That man who, collected in mind, performs worship of the two sandals / through the hand of a maiden born of her lineage, / having obtained happiness in this world, shall be possessed of happiness after death.

Therefore, by every effort, the two sandals are especially to be worshipped / through the hand of a maiden, and that maiden too is to be worshipped,

by human beings endowed with devotion who desire eternal happiness / in this world and the next; thus said the Great Lord.

This entire māhātmya originating from the sandals has been told to you / in connection with Śrīmātā and Ambādevī, O best of the twice-born.

And whoever hears this with devotion and a concentrated mind on the fourteenth, / and especially on the eighth [day], attains the supreme state.

Thus ends the eighty-ninth chapter, titled 'Description of the Māhātmya of the Sandals of Śrīmātā', in the Māhātmya of Hāṭakeśvara Kṣetra in the Nāgarakhaṇḍa, the sixth [section], in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.