Skandapurana 6.3.86

Chapter 86

The venerable Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Then one should go, O great king, to the excellent Piṅgalāvarta / situated near the confluence on the northern bank of the Revā. / O chief of kings, Piṅgaleśvara was installed by the Carrier of Oblations.

Yudhiṣṭhira said: / O lord, how was Īśvara installed by the Carrier of Oblations? / Tell me all this; you ought to speak out of grace.

Mārkaṇḍeya said: / O king, the Carrier of Oblations was satiated by Śambhu with his semen, / when the fierce [god] had attained pleasure with a mind intent on sporting with Gaurī.

It was cast into the mouth of the Carrier of Oblations by Rudra of unmeasured splendor. / Burned by the semen of Rudra, having undertaken pilgrimage to sacred fords with zeal,

having gone to oceans and rivers, he came in due course to the Revā. / With supreme devotion, the Fire-god practiced severe meditation.

As long as the Fire-god practiced austerity, consuming only wind for a full hundred years, / so long [afterward] Mahādeva, pleased, the giver of boons to the all-knowing [Fire], / having approached his presence, spoke this word:

Īśvara said: / Choose a boon, O devourer of oblations, whatever is in your mind.

Agni said: / Homage to you, O Lord of all the worlds! O fierce-formed one, homage to you! / Scorched by your semen, I have become a leper, O Maheśvara. / Have mercy, O Mahādeva; destroy my disease!

Īśvara said: / O Carrier of Oblations, become free of disease quickly through my grace. / Having taken a ritual ablution at this sacred ford, you will regain your natural form.

Having spoken thus, Mahādeva disappeared right there. / Immediately, the Carrier of Oblations swiftly bathed in the water of the Revā.

At that very moment, freed from disease, he came to possess a divine form. / That Fire installed the Lord of gods as Piṅgaleśvara.

By name he worshipped him and joyfully praised him with hymns of praise. / Then the Carrier of Oblations went to the realm of the gods.

Thus, O king, Piṅgaleśvara was installed by the Carrier of Oblations. / Indeed, whoever, with anger conquered, observes a fast there,

his fruit is [that of] an Atirātra sacrifice, and in the end he attains the state of Rudra. / There [giving] a tawny cow to a virtuous brahmin, O descendant of Bharata,

having adorned her along with her calf, adorned with ornaments according to one's means— / whoever gives [her], O chief of kings, goes to the supreme state.

Thus ends the eighty-sixth chapter, titled "Description of the Greatness of the Piṅgaleśvara Sacred Ford," in the Revākhaṇḍa of the Āvantyakhaṇḍa, in the Mahāpurāṇa of eighty-one thousand verses, the glorious Skandapurāṇa.