Skandapurana 3.2.2.22_10

3.2.2.22_10

Yudhiṣṭhira said: / When was the name "Dharmāraṇya" established by the thirty [gods]? / How did it come into being on the earth, and why was it created by him? / For what reason did it become a sacred ford? Tell me that. / How many were the brahmins, and by whom were they settled long ago? / For what purpose were the eighteen thousand settled? / From what part were those brahmins, best among the twice-born, born? / Skilled in all branches of learning, masters of the Vedas and Vedāṅgas, / well-versed in the Ṛgveda and having exerted themselves in the Yajurveda, / knowing the far shore of the Sāmaveda's limbs, knowing the threefold knowledge, foremost in dharma, / devoted to austerity, of auspicious conduct, intent on vows of truth, / emaciated by month-long fasts and by cāndrāyaṇa penances and the like, / of good conduct, friendly to brahmins—by what do they make their daily livelihood? / Tell me all that entirely from the beginning, O best of speakers! / How is it that the dānavas, daiteyas, beings born as bhūtas and vetālas, / rākṣasas, and piśācas there do not torment them? / Thus ends the second chapter, titled "The Description of Yudhiṣṭhira's Questions," in the māhātmya of Dharmāraṇya, in the first half of the Brahmakhaṇḍa, in the venerable Skanda Mahāpurāṇa of eighty-one thousand verses.