Skandapurana 3.1.32
English (machine translation) 3.1.32
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Glorious Sūta said:
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Once again I shall proclaim the majesty of Dhanuṣkoṭi
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out of regard for you, O dwellers of Naimiṣāraṇya.
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A great king named Nanda, born in the lunar dynasty,
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ruled this earth bounded by the oceans in accordance with dharma.
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His son was known by the name Dharmagupta.
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Placing the burden of protecting the kingdom upon his own son,
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that Nanda, having conquered his senses and conquered his appetite, entered the forest of austerity.
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When his father had gone to the forest of austerity, the king named Dharmagupta,
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knowing righteousness and devoted to statecraft, protected the earth.
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He worshiped with diverse sacrifices the gods led by Indra.
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He gave wealth and many lands to brahmins.
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While that king ruled, all were devoted to their own duties;
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no afflictions arising from thieves and the like occurred under him.
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Once, mounted on an excellent horse, this Dharmagupta,
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eager with the passion for hunting, entered the forest, O best of brahmins.
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In that forest whose quarters were filled with tamāla, tāla, hintāla, and kurava trees,
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dreadful with lions and tigers, he roamed—
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where the intermediate directions were filled with the buzzing of swarms of intoxicated bees,
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and crowded with ponds full of beds of lotuses, kalhāras, kumudas, and blue water-lilies,
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adorned with ascetics.
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As King Dharmagupta wandered in that forest,
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night fell, O brahmins, with its horizons shrouded in darkness.
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The king too, disciplined and having performed the evening twilight worship,
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chanted the Gāyatrī, the mother of the Vedas, there in the forest.
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When, out of fear of lions, tigers, and other beasts, the prince mounted a certain tree,
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a bear, tormented by fear of a lion, came there.
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A forest-dwelling lion pursued that bear.
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Chased by the lion, the bear climbed up the tree.
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Having climbed that tree, the bear saw the lord of the earth,
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the great-souled one of great strength and valor, stationed in the tree.
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Seeing the king, this forest-dwelling bear spoke:
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"Do not be afraid, O king of kings; we two will spend the night here.
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Possessed of great strength, a massive body, and bristling with large fangs,
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this exceedingly terrifying lion has arrived at the foot of the tree.
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Do you sleep for half the night, protected by me first;
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then protect me while I sleep for half the night, O highly intelligent one."
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Accepting those words of his, when Nanda's son was asleep, the lion
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spoke to the bear: "This king is asleep; let him be thrown down!"
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The righteous bear said to that lion, O best of the twice-born:
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"You do not know righteousness, O king of beasts, forest-dweller!
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For betrayers of trust face great misery in the world;
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the sin of those who harm a friend is not destroyed even by tens of thousands of sacrifices.
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There may somehow be an expiation for sins such as the murder of a brahmin,
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but the sin of those who betray the trusting is not wiped away in tens of millions of births.
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I do not consider Mount Meru a great burden on earth, O lion;
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I consider the betrayer of trust in this world to be the great burden."
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When this was spoken by the bear, the lion then fell silent.
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And when Dharmagupta awoke, the bear fell asleep in the tree.
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Then the lion said to the king: "Throw this bear down to me!"
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When this was spoken by the lion, the unhesitating king
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flung onto the ground that bear whose head was resting in his lap.
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While being thrown down by the king, holding on to the tree with its claws,
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the bear, through the power of merit, did not fall to the surface of the earth.
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Approaching the king, the bear spoke these words in anger:
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"Assuming any form at will, O king, I was born in the lineage of Bhṛgu;
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named Dhyānakāṣṭha, I took on the form of a bear.
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Because you cast me off, sinless and asleep, O king,
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therefore, by my curse, wander swiftly as a madman, O lord of the earth!"
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Having thus cursed the king, the sage then spoke to the lion:
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"You were formerly the great yakṣa Nṛsiṃha, a minister of Kubera.
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Once, having gone to Mount Himavat in the company of your wife,
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through ignorance you indulged joyfully in amorous sport near Gautama.
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And Gautama, who had by chance stepped out from his leaf hut to gather sacrificial wood,
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seeing you unclothed, pronounced a curse:"
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"Because you stood naked today in my hermitage,
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therefore, this very day you shall become a lion; of this there is no doubt."
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Thus, by the curse of Gautama, you attained the state of a lion formerly.
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You were formerly the yakṣa named Bhadra, the minister of Kubera.
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Kubera is indeed virtuous in conduct, and so too are his servants.
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Therefore, why do you seek to kill me, a seer dwelling in the forest?
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All this I know through meditation, O king of beasts."
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When this was spoken by Dhyānakāṣṭha, he quickly cast off the lion's nature
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and assumed the divine form of a yakṣa, embodying the minister of Kubera.
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With folded hands, bowing down, he spoke to the sage Dhyānakāṣṭha:
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"Today I have come to know the entire previous account, O great sage.
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At the time of the curse, Gautama also told me the end of the curse:
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'When you have a conversation with Dhyānakāṣṭha in the form of a bear,
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then, shaking off the state of a lion, you will attain your yakṣa form.'
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Thus Gautama, the best of sages, spoke to me, O holy one.
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Today, upon the destruction of my lionhood, I recognize you, O great sage,
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named Dhyānakāṣṭha, pure, and capable of assuming any form at will."
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Having spoken thus and bowed to Dhyānakāṣṭha, the king of yakṣas
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mounted an excellent aerial chariot and departed for the city of Alakā.
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When that lord of yakṣas had departed, the great sage Dhyānakāṣṭha,
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whose movement was unhindered as he wished, went wherever he pleased over the earth.
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When that sage Dhyānakāṣṭha, who could assume any form at will, had departed,
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Dharmagupta, maddened by the sage's curse, went to the city.
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Seeing that best of kings in a mad condition, the ministers
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brought him into the presence of his father on the delightful bank of the Revā.
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They reported to him the derangement of his son's mind.
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Learning the news of his son, his father Nanda then,
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taking his son, swiftly went near Jaimini.
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He related the entire story of his son to him from the beginning:
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"O venerable Jaimini, today my son has fallen into madness.
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Tell me a means for the destruction of his madness, O great sage."
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Thus questioned, Jaimini, the best of sages, meditated for a long time.
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Having meditated for a very long time, he then spoke to King Nanda:
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"Indeed, your son became mad through the curse of Dhyānakāṣṭha.
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I will tell you the means for release from his curse.
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On the bridge in the southern ocean, holy and destroying sin,
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there is a most excellent sacred ford known as Dhanuṣkoṭi,
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the purifier of the pure and the most auspicious of auspicious things,
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attested by the Vedas, exceedingly holy, and purifying sins such as the killing of a brahmin.
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Taking your son there today, O lord of the earth, bathe him.
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His madness will surely vanish at that very moment; there is no doubt."
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Addressed in this manner, Nanda bowed to Jaimini, the best of sages,
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and then, taking his son, went to Dhanuṣkoṭi.
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And there he bathed his son according to the prescribed rules.
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From the mere ritual ablution, the son was instantly cured of his madness.
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Nanda himself also bathed at Dhanuṣkoṭi with devotion.
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Having stayed for one day, the father along with his son then
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worshipped Rāmanātha, the embodiment of Śiva accompanied by Umā, the treasury of compassion.
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Taking leave of his son, Nanda went to the forest for austerity.
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When the father had departed, King Dharmagupta also, O twice-born ones,
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gave abundant wealth with devotion to Rāmanātha.
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He then gave wealth, grain, and fields to the brahmins.
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Thereupon he departed along with his ministers to his own city.
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He ruled the kingdom with righteousness, free of any thorn,
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which had belonged to his fathers and grandfathers, O brahmins, being exceedingly virtuous.
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Whatever men are seized by madness, epilepsy,
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or evil spirits, O lords of brahmins, they too, by plunging here
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at Dhanuṣkoṭi, become completely released; truly, truly do I say this.
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Whoever, abandoning Dhanuṣkoṭi, should go to another sacred ford
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abandons milk of a cow ready at hand and begs for the latex of the snuhī plant."
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"Dhanuṣkoṭi! Dhanuṣkoṭi! Dhanuṣkoṭi!"—O twice-born,
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those men who recite this three times in any reservoir of water,
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and bathe, all those men shall indeed go to the abode of Brahmā.
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Thus has been told to you, O brahmins, the auspicious tale of Dharmagupta,
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by merely hearing which the murder of a brahmin is destroyed,
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and other accumulations of sin, such as the theft of gold, are destroyed.
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Thus ends the thirty-second chapter, titled "The Description of the Deliverance of Dharmagupta from Madness, in Praise of Dhanuṣkoṭi," in the Setumāhātmya, in the third [section, the] Brahmakhaṇḍa, in the Skandamahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.
Linked texts (1)
- Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit