Skandapurana 6.3.72

English (machine translation) 6.3.72

Language: English

Śrī Mārkaṇḍeya said:
Then one should go, O best of kings, to the auspicious Maṇināgeśvara
on the north bank of the Narmadā, which destroys all sins,
installed by Maṇināga out of desire for the welfare of the worlds.

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Yudhiṣṭhira said:
How was Īśvara pleased by a venomous serpent?
They are vile, terrifying to the entire world, and full of poison.

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Tell me everything, father, which grants pacification of sin.
My suffering born of anguish, arisen from Duryodhana,

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and the terrible suffering arisen from Karṇa and Bhīṣma, arisen on account of the princess of Pañcāla,
having been flooded by the flood from your lotus mouth, I have attained contentment.

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Hearing the sin-destroying story sung from your mouth—
it is unfitting for us, O twice-born, if affliction is not pacified.

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Or rather, father, whatever fruit of imparting knowledge is obtained,
that fruit is perpetually obtained from hearing the story of Hari.

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Glorious Mārkaṇḍeya said:
Just as you speak, O king, so too does my speech find joy.
Though I am beset with old age and weakness, father, my affection for you does not perish at all.
Therefore listen, along with your kinsmen, to this praised tale that removes sin.

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I shall recount the ancient narrative just as it happened,

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as recounted by earlier events through lineage, O Bhārata.

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Kaśyapa had two wives, unequalled in all the worlds.
Vinatā gave birth to Garuḍa, and Kadrū then to the serpents.

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And they dwelt with contentment, father, in the house of Kaśyapa—
Kadrū and the one named Vinatā, two women ever delighted.

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With them Kaśyapa, the lord of creatures, also sported.
Then on a certain day, staying in the hermitage, the fair-faced one,

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seeing the horse Uccaiḥśravas endowed with the speed of thought, [said:]
'Look, look, slender-limbed one, at the horse white all over,

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running without rest, comparable in speed to thought!'
Seeing that horse suddenly, [Kadrū] spoke with feelings of envy:

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Kadrū said:
'Tell me, fair one, of what color is the horse of the thousand-rayed [sun]?
I say this one is black; what do you say? Speak to that!'

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Vinatā said:
'Do you indeed see with your eyes black, and not see white?
From speaking untruth, fair one, you will go to the realm of Yama.

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A wager between you and me upon true and false words:
for a thousand years I shall be a slave in your house,

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if my statement is false, if Uccaiḥśravas is black;
then I shall become a slave in your house, mother of serpents.

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[Kadrū said:] If Uccaiḥśravas is white, I alone shall be your slave!'
Thus between the two of them this dispute escalated.

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The young woman, having gone to the hermitage, remained at night absorbed in anxiety.
She told her group of kinsmen all that had taken place.

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[She said,] 'I have told my sons, O son of Pṛthā, that a wager was made by me.'
An outcry of woe was made by the serpents, hearing that a wager had been made by their mother.

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[They said,] 'You have become a slave, there is no doubt! The mount of the sun is white.
The horse Uccaiḥśravas is white, nowhere is he black.'

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Kadrū said:
'Devise that action so that I do not become a slave!
Enter into the hair-pores of the horse Uccaiḥśravas

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for just the span of a muhūrta, so long as he is seen as black.
And in just a single moment she will become my slave.

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Having made that slender Vinatā, proud of truth, into a slave,
then, going to your own places, all of you will dwell as you please.'

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The serpents said:
'Just as you are a mother, O mother, worshipped by all on earth,
so also is she especially; mothers are not to be deceived.

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A mother, a father's wife, a mother's mother, and a father's mother—
one should act for their welfare in deed, thought, and speech.'

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She then, at that speech, enraged like the fire of cosmic dissolution, [said:]
'Whosoever serpents on earth do not perform my word,

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they shall all enter the mouth of the fire without hesitation!'
Hearing that speech of their mother, all the serpents—

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some entered the hairs of the horse Uccaiḥśravas,
while some fled in the ten directions out of fear of Kadrū's curse.

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Some fled into the waters of the Gaṅgā, some fled to the Sarasvatī,
some hid in the great ocean, or entered caves of the Vindhya.

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Resorting to the waters of the Narmadā, O king, Maṇināga, the best [of snakes],
performed vast austerity on the northern bank of the Narmadā.

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Out of fear of his mother's curse, O son of Pṛthā, he meditated upon the destroyer of desires,
who is indivisible, inconceivable, and devoid of destruction and origination.

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Eating only wind for more than a hundred [years], and for half of that gazing at the sun,
to him who was thus engaged in meditation, the destroyer of Tripura became visible to the eyes.

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'Well done, well done, highly fortunate one, steadfast serpent!
I have been captured by you with devotion, and I am pleased with you, O lord of serpents.
Quickly ask of me the boon that is in your mind!'

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Maṇināga said:
'Out of fear of my mother's curse, O Lord, I have suffered on the bank of the Narmadā.
By your grace, O Lord, may my mother's curse become vain.'

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Īśvara said:
'You will not reach the mouth of the fire, my child, by my command;
and your dwelling, O son, shall be in my realm.'

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Maṇināga said:
'In this place, O Mahādeva, please remain by a portion of a part;
by a thousandth part please remain in the water of the Narmadā,
for the benefit of the worlds, under my name, O Śaṅkara!'

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Īśvara said:
'Establish the supreme liṅga by my command, O serpent.'
Having spoken thus, the god disappeared and went away with Umā.

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Mārkaṇḍeya said:
Those who, having gone to that sacred ford with purified and restrained minds,
on the fifth, fourteenth, or eighth day of the bright or dark fortnights,

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ever worship [it], O son of Pṛthā, do not approach Yama.
With curd, honey, ghee, and mixed with milk,

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they bathe the uneven-eyed one who bears half of Umā's body,
the god who burned the body of Kāma, the destroyer of the demon Agha.

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And those who with devotion behold the Supreme Lord while he is being bathed, / go to the highest world, freed from all sin.

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Those who, O son of Pṛthā, perform a śrāddha for the deceased on the eighth or fifth lunar days, / with worthy brahmins who constantly study and contemplate the Vedas,

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devoted to their own wives, gentle, avoiding other men's wives, / dedicated to the six rites, dear one, and free from sending Śūdras [on their errands]—

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the lame, the stammerers, eunuchs, usurers, farmers, / and those engaged in improper conduct, O son, must never be engaged.

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He in whose house lives a low-caste woman, or who keeps a buffalo-cow— / that brahmin must be avoided from afar in vows and śrāddhas, O lord of men.

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The one-eyed, those with crippled hands, the blunt-fingered, and those bereft of Vedic study— / these twice-born men should not be honored at auspicious Maṇināgeśvara, O son of Pṛthā.

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If one should desire upward ascent for oneself together with one's ancestors, / one should give a cow handsome in all limbs to a twice-born first-born.

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He goes to the supreme world until the dissolution of all beings; / then, falling from heaven, he is born into a pure family.

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Those who behold Maṇināgeśvara with supreme devotion, O king— / no fear of serpents arises in their lineage, O king.

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A serpent fears them from the sight of Maṇināga; / they appear in the serpent-realm with the form of Garuḍa.

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Now hear the fruits of gifts, O best of kings: / those best of men who give food prepared with rituals,

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water, a bed, likewise a parasol, a maiden, and an eloquent maidservant— / it should be given to a worthy recipient, O king, if one desires one's own welfare.

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One should cause fragrant flowers, scented garments to be given, / a lamp, grain, and a bright house equipped with all furnishings.

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Those who give with supreme devotion go to heaven. / Whatever gift is given at Maṇināga, O best of kings,

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by the power of that gift, residence in heaven is certain to result; / sins dissolve away like water in an unbaked pot.

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He who gives food prepared with Narmadā water to a brahmin, / is also freed from sins and sports with the deities.

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Now I will state the characteristics of those fallen from heaven: / long-lived, with living sons, wealthy, handsome,

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freed from all diseases, accompanied by sons and servants, / generous, endowed with enjoyments, constantly devoted to sacred narratives,

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devoted to gods, brahmins, and gurus, intent on serving sacred fords, / always obedient to mother and father, free from malice and wrath—

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men endowed with these very virtues, O son of Pāṇḍu, / have truly arrived from heaven, and they go to dwell in heaven.

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Maṇināga is the best sacred ford of all sacred fords, O best of kings. / Whoever recites or listens to this holy narrative of the sacred ford,

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freed from sins, he also is glorified in the world of Śiva. / Poison does not affect them; they wander as they please.

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Whatever merit is obtained on the sixth day of Bhādrapada by the sight of the sun, / that fruit he obtains merely by listening to this narrative.

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Thus ends the seventy-second chapter, titled 'Description of the Glory of Maṇināgeśvara Sacred Ford,' in the Revākhaṇḍa of the fifth section, the Āvantyakhaṇḍa, in the glorious Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.

Linked texts (1)

Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit