Skandapurana 2.4.2.55

2.4.2.55

2.4.2.52
Now he states the praise of the gift of a Śāligrāma stone in the month of Kārtika: 'śāligrāma...' As a brahmin woman became a widow due to the death of her husband on the fifth day after marriage, but through the gift of a Śāligrāma stone her husband regained life, whereby she became a woman whose husband was living. On this matter, there is a well-known story in the Sāroddhāra: On the bank of the Godā[varī], there was a certain vaiśya addicted to great sin and of vile conduct. Once he struck with a sword a brahmin who had taken a debt; therefore, at the end of his life, he fell into the Raurava hell. Now his son named Dharmacāra expended the wealth acquired by his father through the virtuous path of sacrifices, gifts, vows, recitations, austerities, public works, beneficence to others, and the like. Once the sage Lomaśa came to the house of the vaiśya Dharmacāra and instructed: 'Liberate your father from Raurava through the merit of gifting a Śāligrāma stone.' Then, thinking that the gift of a stone was useless and disregarding the seer's words, he remained silent; and in time, he died, while Lomaśa also departed in silence. That vaiśya Dharmacāra, from disrespecting the stone and disregarding the brahmin's words, suffered the torments of hell for a manvantara, experienced various animal wombs due to the residue of karma, and experienced births as a woman, and in the eleventh birth became the daughter of a priest-brahmin. Then the father, seeing his daughter arrived at youth, gave her in marriage to one of equal family and lineage. Then her husband died on the fifth day from a vomiting illness. Then the priest, seeing his son-in-law dead, reflecting for a moment, 'By what might the son-in-law live?', and thinking that a gift of a Śāligrāma in Kārtika was the cause for life, caused a handsome Śāligrāma with auspicious marks to be given to a brahmin through the hand of his daughter. Then at that very moment the husband regained life. Then the couple sported for a long time. In the course of time, that daughter of the priest, having become entirely freed from birth as a woman through the merit of gifting a Śāligrāma, and having attained birth as a brahmin named Viṣṇuyaśas, attained liberation every year in Kārtika through the merit of gifting a Śāligrāma. 55. In connection with the gift of the stone, he states the characteristics of the stone from the Padma Purāṇa: 'One should indicate [a stone] marked with discs, having gold in its body, with a network of rays, full of streaks of gold, adorned with the luster of crystal. / An extremely smooth one brings accomplishment, and a black one grants fame; / a pale one burns sins, a yellow one grants the fruit of sons; / a blue one bestows fortune, a red one produces disease; / a rough one generates agitation, a crooked one partakes of poverty. / One [disc] is to be known as Sudarśana; two as Lakṣmīnārāyaṇa; / one should know three as Acyuta, and four indeed as Janārdana; / the fifth as Vāsudeva, and the sixth as Pradyumna; / the seventh as Saṃkarṣaṇa, and the eighth as Puruṣottama; / the ninth as Navavyūha, and the tenth having the nature of ten; / the eleventh as Aniruddha, and the twelfth having the nature of twelve; / above that, discs seen [on a stone] are called Ananta. / When a Śāligrāma is fractured, cracked, or broken, it incurs no defect.'"