The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c18.10

v2.c18.10

Sāmba resolved to do as he was directed. On the following morning, when bathing in the stream of the Candrabhāgā, Sāmba found a stone image in the bed of the river. It was the same which Viśvakarmā had thrown there in a former age and which had been carved out of a portion of the sun's body. It is said that Sūrya had married Samjñā, a daughter of Viśvakarmā ; but the young lady, disgusted with his fierceness and roughness, deserted him and hid herself in the Śveta Dvīpa. Sūrya thereupon consulted Brahmā, and by the advice of that divinity, got himself pared down and smoothed by Viśvakarmā, who put him on his lathe and pared off an eighth of his body by trimming every part except the feet. Having thus improved his appearance, Sūrya regained his truant wife. Viśvakarmā, unwilling to throw away the parings, fashioned them into various objects, such as the discus of Viṣṇu, the trident of Śiva, the club of Kuvera, the lance of Kārtikeya, and devoted a good portion to an image of the divinity. This last was by some accident thrown into the Candrabhāgā, and Sāmba, having got hold of this precious relic, set it up in an appropriate temple, and, by the advice of the divinity, procured certain Śākadvīpa Brahmins, whose profession was medicine, to serve as officiating priests. The image has remained there ever since.