Skandapurana 16.16
English (machine translation) 16.16
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16.16.1
Īśvara said: / Hear now also the māhātmya of the chasm of Pātāla, / which was formerly asked about, O great goddess, by Viśvakarman, the creator.
16.16.2
When darkness arose, rākṣasas were born right there, / all of them haters of the Sun, innumerable and of great strength.
16.16.3
When they saw the great-souled day-maker rising up, / all of them, headed by Dhūmra, straightway laughed at the Sun:
16.16.4
'Who is this destroyer of ours that performs evil deeds?' / Thus, standing before the Sun, they spoke various words.
16.16.5
Hearing this speech of the rākṣasas, the god, the day-maker, / his lower lip trembling with wrath, being swallowed [by them],
16.16.6
then looked with an eye overcome by anger— / he, the destroyer of cruel demons, a lion to the elephant of darkness.
16.16.7
The sun, possessing great rays, moving through the sky, contemplated their destruction, / not knowing at first any vulnerability in the rākṣasas, the lord of the sky.
16.16.8
Seeing them fallen from dharma, their minds struck by sin, / reflecting thus, the blessed light-maker meditated in contemplation.
16.16.9
He perceived that the three worlds were swallowed up by the night-stalkers through their fiery power. / Then they were looked upon by the Sun with an eye inflated by anger.
16.16.10
Fallen from the sky, they crashed down like planets whose merits are exhausted. / Surrounded by the rākṣasas, Dhūmra shone as he fell from the sky,
16.16.11
like a half-ripe palmyra fruit surrounded by monkeys. / They crashed down randomly like stones hurled from a catapult.
16.16.12
Then, having fallen by the power of the wind, piercing the earth, / they went to Rasātala after reaching the sacred field of Prabhāsa, O woman of excellent complexion,
16.16.13
where the god Arkasthala, the bestower of all perfections, resides; / near it, O goddess, is situated the great chasm of Pātāla.
16.16.14
There are crores of others, [but] they have disappeared, O radiant woman, / beginning from Kṛtasmara up to the sun of Arkasthala.
16.16.15
Having obtained a boon from the Mother of the Gods, the eight perfections are stationed there. / In this interval, O goddess, the sacred field of the Sun is proclaimed.
16.16.16
That is remembered as the central part of the Sun's splendour, O goddess; / it is entirely made of gold, O goddess; one devoid of merit does not behold it.
16.16.17
There are one hundred and one chasms, and touches by the crores; / they exist there, O great goddess, and Siddheśa protects them.
16.16.18
This sacred field, O great goddess, is always dear to the Sun; / when a solar conjunction arrives, O beloved, it is greater than Kurukṣetra.
16.16.19
The Brāhmī, the Hiraṇyā, and the confluence of the great ocean: / this triple confluence, O goddess, bestows the fruit of ten million sacred fords.
16.16.20
The Mother of the Gods is right there, and Maṅkīśa stays there; / the abode of serpents and the abode of the mountain are proclaimed right there.
16.16.21
Thus the great majesty of Arkasthala has been briefly described, / and how the chasm came to be through the fall of the rākṣasas.
16.16.22
Other chasms there have indeed vanished, O queen of the gods; / but this one is seen openly there even today, O radiant woman.
16.16.23
That opening, named Śrīmukha, is guarded by the Mothers, O beloved. / Whoever worships it with self-restraint on the fourteenth day for one year,
16.16.24
There, O goddess, [he who worships] the host of mothers headed by Sunandā according to rule, / with offerings of animals and flowers, and with excellent incense and lamps, / and with feedings for brahmins, O goddess, will attain perfection.
16.16.25
Therefore, by every effort, near that Arkasthala, / one should worship all the mothers if one desires one's own perfection.
16.16.26
These mothers, O goddess, known by the name of the group of Sunandā, / have attained fame in this sacred field of Prabhāsa, O fair-complexioned one.
16.16.27
This has been told in brief concerning the middle of the northern [entrance] of Pātāla; / having heard it, O goddess, the best of men is freed from all misfortunes.
16.16.27_1
Thus ends the sixteenth chapter, entitled 'Description of the Origin of the Host of Mothers Headed by Sunandā at the Opening to Pātāla', in the Māhātmya of Arkasthala in the Prabhāsakṣetramāhātmya, the first [part] of the seventh section, Prabhāsakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa, a compendium of eighty-one thousand [verses].
Linked texts (1)
- Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit