Skandapurana 6.3.2

Chapter 2 / Sūta said:

Kṛṣṇa Dvaipāyana declared the māhātmya of the Narmadā; / that which was asked by you, I shall relate completely to you.

Who else indeed is capable of declaring the extent / of the sacred fords of the Narmadā, O best of sages, except Brahmā and Īśvara?

This very question Janamejaya asked of old / to the pupil of Dvaipāyana named Vaiśaṃpāyana.

The holy [māhātmya] concerning the sacred fords of the Revā I shall tell you, O Śaunaka. / Formerly, King [Janamejaya], the son of Parīkṣit, was consecrated in the rites of sacrifice.

When the sacrificial materials had been gathered and the rituals were underway, / when the foremost twice-born were seated and the fire was being offered into,

and discourses on dharma were going on everywhere, / while day and night the words spoken by the people were heard

in the sacrificial arena, O patriarch: 'Give!' and 'Eat!', / and while entertainers were performing various entertainments—

while such a sacrifice was taking place, resembling an assembly of heaven, / Janamejaya questioned Vaiśaṃpāyana who was seated.

Janamejaya said: / By the grace of Dvaipāyana you are endowed with knowledge, in my view; / therefore I ask you, Vaiśaṃpāyana, in the presence of the seers.

Tell me the ancient account of the attendance at sacred fords by my ancestors; / I have heard that they suffered various afflictions for a long time.

How was it that the sons of Pṛthā, my ancient grandfathers, defeated at dice, / wandered over the earth as far as the ocean, O brahmin, out of a desire for sacred fords?

Accompanied by whom, dear sir, did they wander through many regions of the earth? / Relate all that; you are regarded by me as omniscient.

Vaiśaṃpāyana said:

I shall relate, O lord of the earth, what has been asked by you, O sinless one, / having bowed down to Virūpākṣa and to the great poet Veda Vyāsa.

Your grandfathers, the five Pāṇḍavas together with Kṛṣṇā, / dwelt with brahmins in the excellent Kāmyaka forest.

Chief among them was Uddālaka, then the broad-minded Kaśyapa, / Vibhāṇḍaka, O best of kings, and the great sage Muru,

Pulastya, and Lomaśa, and likewise others with sons and grandsons; / having bathed at all the sacred fords, they went to the Vindhya mountain.

And there [they saw] a holy hermitage filled with every kind of tree: / campakas, karṇikāras, punnāgas, and nāgakesaras,

adorned with bakulas, kovidāras, and pomegranates, / with flowering arjunas, bilvas, pāṭalas, and ketakas,

with kadambas, mangoes, and madhūkas, nimba, jambīra, and tinduka trees, / with coconuts, kapitthas, dates, and jackfruits,

overgrown with various trees and creepers, covered with manifold climbing plants, / flowering, fruitful, charming like the Caitraratha grove,

adorned with groups of lotuses in expansive bodies of water, / and veiled with white water-lilies, blue, yellow, white, and red,

crowded with swans and kāraṇḍavas, graced with cakravākas, / frequented by water-fowls, storks, cranes, cuckoos, and others,

with lions, tigers, boars, and fiercely haughty elephants, / with giant buffaloes, deer, leopards, and hares,

with rhinoceroses, jackals, and cattle, / with sāraṅga deer, mallakas, two-footed and four-footed beasts,

and also crowded with cuckoos, captivating the mind, exceedingly fair, / with flocks of jīvañjīvaka pheasants, accompanied by manifold birds,

free from sorrow and distress, enchanting with noble creatures, / devoid of hunger and thirst, lovely, entirely free from disease.

There deer drink affectionately from the lioness's teat, / and a cat and a mouse both look up and lick each other.

Lions with elephant calves, and snakes with peacocks— / having seen that delightful forest, the sons of Pāṇḍu entered.

There he saw Mārkaṇḍa resembling the morning sun, / attended upon by seers skilled in various sacred scriptures,

born of noble families, endowed with pure essence, accompanied by purity and good conduct, / endowed with wisdom, possessed of forbearance, devoted to chanting during the three junctions of the day,

devoted to oblations with the mantras prescribed in the Ṛg, Yajur, and Sāma Vedas; / some standing in the midst of five fires, some remaining in solitude,

with raised arms without support, others following the movement of the sun, / others eating in the evening and morning, and others eating once a day,

and others [eating] after twelve days, others taking food every half-month, / others at every new moon, and others subsisting on moss.

Others ate oilcake, some subsisted on palāśa leaves, / others of restrained diet, feeding on wind or consuming water—

by such eminent aged sages he was attended upon. / Then that glorious son of Dharma entered that hermitage;

having seen that best of sages, tranquil, meditating on the supreme abode, / he circumambulated him clockwise and quickly fell down like a staff before him.

Seeing him fallen down in devotion, [the sage] opened his eyes after a long time. / 'Who are you?' he said; the wise one questioned Dharma's son:

Hearing his word, a boy standing near him / said: 'This is the King of Dharma, who has arrived for your darśana.'

Hearing the word spoken by the boy, he said with respect, / 'Come, come, child, child!' moving slightly from his seat; / smelling him affectionately, the sage had him seated on a seat.

When he was seated in the assembly, after performing worship according to the rule / with wild grains, fruits, roots, and various kinds of juices,

the Pāṇḍavas together with the brahmins were appropriately honored. / Then, having rested for a moment, Yudhiṣṭhira, the son of Dharma,

asked that best of sages, filled with curiosity: / 'O Lord, among all the worlds you are considered long-lived by me;

tell me completely of the seven aeons, O sinless one. / Even at the end of an aeon, of the world, both motionless and moving,

you were not destroyed, O foremost among vipras! How or for what reason? / All the rivers beginning with the Gaṅgā that reach the sea, O sage—

among them, which remained and which went to dissolution? / Which indeed has sacred waters eternally, and which did not meet destruction?

Tell me this, O father, with a gracious inner self; / I wish to hear it completely, along with the seers and my kinsmen.'

Śrī Mārkaṇḍeya said: / 'Well said, well said, O wise one, O Yudhiṣṭhira, son of Dharma! / I shall tell according to the rule what you ask me, O sinless one.

The sacred Purāṇa spoken by Rudra, which destroys all sins— / hear the holy fruit of the man who listens to it with devotion:

with a thousand horse-sacrifices and a hundred vājapeya sacrifices, / he obtains that same fruit, O king; there is no doubt about this.

The killer of a brahmin, the drinker of liquor, the thief, and the man who slays a cow / is freed from all sins, according to the word of Rudra.

The Gaṅgā is the foremost among rivers, and likewise the Sarasvatī, / the Kāverī, the Devikā, the Sindhu, and the Sālakuṭī,

the Sarayū, the Śatarudrā, the Mahī along with the Carmilā, / and the sacred Godāvarī, and likewise the river Yamunā,

the Payoṣṇī, the Śatadru, and the auspicious Dharmanadī— / these and other rivers are traditionally remembered as destroyers of all sins.

However, I shall tell you the reason, O father, O best among kings: / the oceans and all the rivers met destruction aeon after aeon.

When the dissolution of seven aeons was spent, the Narmadā was not perished thereby; / the Narmadā alone, O king of kings, the best of rivers, would stand supreme,

full of water, O highly fortunate one, praised by multitudes of sages; / whereas the other rivers, beginning with the Gaṅgā, met destruction aeon after aeon.

This goddess was seen in ancient times; therefore I shall tell it to you, O sinless one.'

Thus ends the second chapter, titled 'Description of the Revāmāhātmya', in the Revākhaṇḍa of the Āvantyakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a collection of eighty-one thousand [verses].