Therefore, O sage, the world came to know him as Mahāvināyaka, the great remover of obstacles. It is said that every month, on the fourth day, the twice-born who worships Ganesha receives blessings. At that time, a drop of sweat fell from the forehead of the divine onto the earth. In the region of Avanti, from this drop, a son of the earth was born, his body glowing with a radiant red hue. Brahma, praising this being with sacred names, placed him among the planets. The linga established by Brahma there, attended by hosts of celestial beings and Gandharvas, became a site of great sanctity. Whoever beholds Aṅgāreśvara at this place is freed from all sins. To honor these divine manifestations, rituals must be performed with diligence, ensuring all four are complete. Offerings should be made of jaggery cakes, accompanied by red cloth. One should prepare an offering filled with sesame and rice, right at the sacred spot. The fourth and fifth offerings should be made with northern roots in the same manner. These rituals are dedicated to Kuja, Lohitāṅga, and the one established among the planets—born from Shiva’s forehead, and from the womb of the earth. O god, whose blazing hue is like burning coal, whose luster rivals smooth coral, born in Avanti upon the earth by Shiva’s will. Thus, on the fourth day, O best of sages, Bhauma (Mars) is worshipped. Whoever dies after such worship attains heaven for as long as fourteen Indras reign. Then, from Cāmuṇḍā, blood appeared, and her face shone with a fierce brilliance. She was black, resembling the end of time, with terrible teeth and lips. Her voice roared like thunder, swelling with wild cries. Placing the tip of a skull upon her enraged mouth, she drank, causing the lord of the demons to become emaciated and powerless. That Dānava became blind, overcome by intense fear, and sought only to save his life. With hands joined in reverence, his body bristling with awe, he praised the god—the lord of gods, the master, the cause of all worlds. He extolled the praiseworthy Śiva, adorned with the crescent moon, the cause of worldly existence, yet the refuge at the end of time. “I seek refuge in Śaṃkara,” he declared. He praised the one whom yogis, free from delusion and darkness, attain through single-pointed devotion and renunciation. Śiva, who always bears the pure crescent moon shining with rays, bound upon his head with the celestial river. Whose lotus feet are served by Siddhas and Cāraṇas, who bears Gaṅgā, wild with waves, as she falls from the sky. He remembered when Rāvaṇa shook the peak of Mount Kailāsa, his ten heads resembling its summit. He recalled how Śiva destroyed the eye at Daksha’s sacrifice, and likewise the eyes of Bhaga and Pūṣan, shattering Pūṣan’s row of teeth. It was Śiva who subdued again and again the sons of Diti, the sons of Danu, and the hosts of Vidyādharas and serpents, granting them complete boons. Even those engaged in worldly matters, if endowed with knowledge and sacred learning, are united with him. The blessed Maheśa granted many boons to Brahma, Indra, Vishnu, the Maruts, and the six-faced ones. He was worshipped through austerity in the groves of Himavat, through smoky vows and asceticism, inaccessible to others. For the sake of divine play, the blessed Lord created the seven worlds, adorned with rivers, birds, and trees. With the nail of the lotus at the tip of his left hand, he forcefully pierced the fifth opening. Those men, deluded, who do not know him as the supreme teacher, fail to understand the true nature of this world, with all its moving and unmoving beings.