Skandapurana 6.3.72

Chapter 72

Śrī Mārkaṇḍeya said:
Then one should go, O best of kings, to the auspicious Maṇināgeśvara
on the north bank of the Narmadā, which destroys all sins,
installed by Maṇināga out of desire for the welfare of the worlds.

Yudhiṣṭhira said:
How was Īśvara pleased by a venomous serpent?
They are vile, terrifying to the entire world, and full of poison.

Tell me everything, father, which grants pacification of sin.
My suffering born of anguish, arisen from Duryodhana,

and the terrible suffering arisen from Karṇa and Bhīṣma, arisen on account of the princess of Pañcāla,
having been flooded by the flood from your lotus mouth, I have attained contentment.

Hearing the sin-destroying story sung from your mouth—
it is unfitting for us, O twice-born, if affliction is not pacified.

Or rather, father, whatever fruit of imparting knowledge is obtained,
that fruit is perpetually obtained from hearing the story of Hari.

Glorious Mārkaṇḍeya said:
Just as you speak, O king, so too does my speech find joy.
Though I am beset with old age and weakness, father, my affection for you does not perish at all.
Therefore listen, along with your kinsmen, to this praised tale that removes sin.

I shall recount the ancient narrative just as it happened,

as recounted by earlier events through lineage, O Bhārata.

Kaśyapa had two wives, unequalled in all the worlds.
Vinatā gave birth to Garuḍa, and Kadrū then to the serpents.

And they dwelt with contentment, father, in the house of Kaśyapa—
Kadrū and the one named Vinatā, two women ever delighted.

With them Kaśyapa, the lord of creatures, also sported.
Then on a certain day, staying in the hermitage, the fair-faced one,

seeing the horse Uccaiḥśravas endowed with the speed of thought, [said:]
'Look, look, slender-limbed one, at the horse white all over,

running without rest, comparable in speed to thought!'
Seeing that horse suddenly, [Kadrū] spoke with feelings of envy:

Kadrū said:
'Tell me, fair one, of what color is the horse of the thousand-rayed [sun]?
I say this one is black; what do you say? Speak to that!'

Vinatā said:
'Do you indeed see with your eyes black, and not see white?
From speaking untruth, fair one, you will go to the realm of Yama.

A wager between you and me upon true and false words:
for a thousand years I shall be a slave in your house,

if my statement is false, if Uccaiḥśravas is black;
then I shall become a slave in your house, mother of serpents.

[Kadrū said:] If Uccaiḥśravas is white, I alone shall be your slave!'
Thus between the two of them this dispute escalated.

The young woman, having gone to the hermitage, remained at night absorbed in anxiety.
She told her group of kinsmen all that had taken place.

[She said,] 'I have told my sons, O son of Pṛthā, that a wager was made by me.'
An outcry of woe was made by the serpents, hearing that a wager had been made by their mother.

[They said,] 'You have become a slave, there is no doubt! The mount of the sun is white.
The horse Uccaiḥśravas is white, nowhere is he black.'

Kadrū said:
'Devise that action so that I do not become a slave!
Enter into the hair-pores of the horse Uccaiḥśravas

for just the span of a muhūrta, so long as he is seen as black.
And in just a single moment she will become my slave.

Having made that slender Vinatā, proud of truth, into a slave,
then, going to your own places, all of you will dwell as you please.'

The serpents said:
'Just as you are a mother, O mother, worshipped by all on earth,
so also is she especially; mothers are not to be deceived.

A mother, a father's wife, a mother's mother, and a father's mother—
one should act for their welfare in deed, thought, and speech.'

She then, at that speech, enraged like the fire of cosmic dissolution, [said:]
'Whosoever serpents on earth do not perform my word,

they shall all enter the mouth of the fire without hesitation!'
Hearing that speech of their mother, all the serpents—

some entered the hairs of the horse Uccaiḥśravas,
while some fled in the ten directions out of fear of Kadrū's curse.

Some fled into the waters of the Gaṅgā, some fled to the Sarasvatī,
some hid in the great ocean, or entered caves of the Vindhya.

Resorting to the waters of the Narmadā, O king, Maṇināga, the best [of snakes],
performed vast austerity on the northern bank of the Narmadā.

Out of fear of his mother's curse, O son of Pṛthā, he meditated upon the destroyer of desires,
who is indivisible, inconceivable, and devoid of destruction and origination.

Eating only wind for more than a hundred [years], and for half of that gazing at the sun,
to him who was thus engaged in meditation, the destroyer of Tripura became visible to the eyes.

'Well done, well done, highly fortunate one, steadfast serpent!
I have been captured by you with devotion, and I am pleased with you, O lord of serpents.
Quickly ask of me the boon that is in your mind!'

Maṇināga said:
'Out of fear of my mother's curse, O Lord, I have suffered on the bank of the Narmadā.
By your grace, O Lord, may my mother's curse become vain.'

Īśvara said:
'You will not reach the mouth of the fire, my child, by my command;
and your dwelling, O son, shall be in my realm.'

Maṇināga said:
'In this place, O Mahādeva, please remain by a portion of a part;
by a thousandth part please remain in the water of the Narmadā,
for the benefit of the worlds, under my name, O Śaṅkara!'

Īśvara said:
'Establish the supreme liṅga by my command, O serpent.'
Having spoken thus, the god disappeared and went away with Umā.

Mārkaṇḍeya said:
Those who, having gone to that sacred ford with purified and restrained minds,
on the fifth, fourteenth, or eighth day of the bright or dark fortnights,

ever worship [it], O son of Pṛthā, do not approach Yama.
With curd, honey, ghee, and mixed with milk,

they bathe the uneven-eyed one who bears half of Umā's body,
the god who burned the body of Kāma, the destroyer of the demon Agha.

And those who with devotion behold the Supreme Lord while he is being bathed, / go to the highest world, freed from all sin.

Those who, O son of Pṛthā, perform a śrāddha for the deceased on the eighth or fifth lunar days, / with worthy brahmins who constantly study and contemplate the Vedas,

devoted to their own wives, gentle, avoiding other men's wives, / dedicated to the six rites, dear one, and free from sending Śūdras [on their errands]—

the lame, the stammerers, eunuchs, usurers, farmers, / and those engaged in improper conduct, O son, must never be engaged.

He in whose house lives a low-caste woman, or who keeps a buffalo-cow— / that brahmin must be avoided from afar in vows and śrāddhas, O lord of men.

The one-eyed, those with crippled hands, the blunt-fingered, and those bereft of Vedic study— / these twice-born men should not be honored at auspicious Maṇināgeśvara, O son of Pṛthā.

If one should desire upward ascent for oneself together with one's ancestors, / one should give a cow handsome in all limbs to a twice-born first-born.

He goes to the supreme world until the dissolution of all beings; / then, falling from heaven, he is born into a pure family.

Those who behold Maṇināgeśvara with supreme devotion, O king— / no fear of serpents arises in their lineage, O king.

A serpent fears them from the sight of Maṇināga; / they appear in the serpent-realm with the form of Garuḍa.

Now hear the fruits of gifts, O best of kings: / those best of men who give food prepared with rituals,

water, a bed, likewise a parasol, a maiden, and an eloquent maidservant— / it should be given to a worthy recipient, O king, if one desires one's own welfare.

One should cause fragrant flowers, scented garments to be given, / a lamp, grain, and a bright house equipped with all furnishings.

Those who give with supreme devotion go to heaven. / Whatever gift is given at Maṇināga, O best of kings,

by the power of that gift, residence in heaven is certain to result; / sins dissolve away like water in an unbaked pot.

He who gives food prepared with Narmadā water to a brahmin, / is also freed from sins and sports with the deities.

Now I will state the characteristics of those fallen from heaven: / long-lived, with living sons, wealthy, handsome,

freed from all diseases, accompanied by sons and servants, / generous, endowed with enjoyments, constantly devoted to sacred narratives,

devoted to gods, brahmins, and gurus, intent on serving sacred fords, / always obedient to mother and father, free from malice and wrath—

men endowed with these very virtues, O son of Pāṇḍu, / have truly arrived from heaven, and they go to dwell in heaven.

Maṇināga is the best sacred ford of all sacred fords, O best of kings. / Whoever recites or listens to this holy narrative of the sacred ford,

freed from sins, he also is glorified in the world of Śiva. / Poison does not affect them; they wander as they please.

Whatever merit is obtained on the sixth day of Bhādrapada by the sight of the sun, / that fruit he obtains merely by listening to this narrative.

Thus ends the seventy-second chapter, titled 'Description of the Glory of Maṇināgeśvara Sacred Ford,' in the Revākhaṇḍa of the fifth section, the Āvantyakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.