Skandapurana 6.3.136

English (machine translation) 6.3.136

Language: English

6.3.136.1

The venerable Mārkaṇḍeya said:
Then, O king, one should go to the supreme Ahalyeśvara, / where formerly the illustrious female ascetic Ahalyā attained perfection. (1)

6.3.136.2

There was a brahmin named Gautama, like another Brahmā in person, / endowed with truth and virtue, devoted to the stage of life of a forest-dweller. (2)

6.3.136.3

His wife was renowned by the name of Ahalyā, highly fortunate, / endowed with beauty and youth, celebrated throughout the three worlds. (3)

6.3.136.4

Bewitched by her surpassing beauty, the king of gods, Śatakratu, / the slayer of Bala, attempted to seduce Ahalyā: (4)

6.3.136.5

'Take pleasure in me, O fair-hipped woman, blameless one, the king of the gods! / Sport with me, you who are revered across the three worlds! (5)

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What will you do with a brahmin who is emaciated from rites of purification and good conduct, / habitually given to austerity and Vedic study, while you suffer as it were, O lovely-eyed woman?' (6)

6.3.136.7

Spoken to in this manner, that fair-hipped woman, very fickle by womanly nature, / turned her mind toward Śakra, defiled by lust. (7)

6.3.136.8

Knowing that disposition of hers, that god, the chastiser of Pāka, / influenced by wicked intent, deceived Gautama. (8)

6.3.136.9

Finding an opportunity and assuming an excellent disguise, / he sported near the dwelling with Ahalyā, who was unsuspecting. (9)

6.3.136.10

Within just a moment's interval of the king of gods' [presence] there, O Bhārata, / the best of sages swiftly came back to the dwelling. (10)

6.3.136.11

Seeing Gautama arrive, Puraṃdara, terrified, / fled from there; and Gautama, observing him, thought, 'This is Śakra.' (11)

6.3.136.12

Then Gautama, faint with rage, cursed the lord of the gods: / 'Because you have not conquered your senses, therefore become covered with vulvas!' (12)

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Thus addressed, O Bhārata, the lord of the gods at that very moment / was enveloped instantly by a thousand vulvas. (13)

6.3.136.14

Abandoning his kingdom along with the gods, stripped of fortune, he departed; / and he performed extensive austerity on the earth on account of Gautama. (14)

6.3.136.15

Ahalyā too was then cursed: 'Because you are an unfaithful wife, / who, seeing me, sport with Śakra, therefore become turned to stone! (15)

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At the end of a thousand years, having seen the renowned Rāma / on the occasion of his pilgrimage, your sins will be washed away.' (16)

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Then, when such time had passed, seen by the wise Rāma / accompanied by Viśvāmitra, she shed her stone form. (17)

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Having duly worshipped him, freed from sin and devoid of malice, / she went to the bank of the Narmadā, and having bathed according to the rules at the sacred ford, (18)

6.3.136.19

she observed the cāndrāyaṇa vow for a month, and thereafter another severe penance. / Thereupon Mahādeva, pleased, granted her an incomparable boon, (19)

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and vanished again; and the husband of Umā took delight for a long time. / When the god had departed, Ahalyā installed the Guru of the Universe, (20)

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named Ahalyeśvara, and returned to her own home. / Whoever bathes at that sacred ford and worships the Supreme Lord, (21)

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upon death attains heaven, where the god Maheśvara resides. / Having sported as he desires in that world, the person of great austerity, (22)

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when a thousand years have passed, attains human birth once more, / endowed with an abundance of wealth and grain, accompanied by sons and grandsons. (23)

Wise and taking refuge in the Vedic sciences, he is born in a pure family, / endowed with beauty and good fortune, free from all diseases, / and lives for more than a hundred years through serving the sacred ford of Ahalyā. (24)

6.3.136.24_2

Thus ends the one hundred and thirty-sixth chapter, entitled 'Description of the Māhātmya of the Ahalyā Tīrtha', in the Revākhaṇḍa of the fifth section, the Āvantyakhaṇḍa, in the Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.

Linked texts (1)

Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit