Samba neglects Narada when the sage visits Dvaravati. To teach him modesty Narada tells Krishna that his wives are too fond of Samba, and later summons Samba to the pleasure garden at Raivataka where they are at their sport. Krishna curses the women and curses Samba to become an ugly leper. Samba pleads innocence; Krishna sends him to Narada, who describes the Sun's court and tells him to take refuge there. With Krishna's leave Samba crosses the Chandrabhaga to Mitravana, emaciates himself with fasts and praises the Sun, who cures him, tells him to set up an image and promises the town his name. Bathing later he finds an image floating face up; it says Vishvakarma made it from the wishing tree after trimming the Sun on the lathe in Shakadvipa and sent it down the river from the Himalaya. Narada rejects the local temple priests; on the Sun's advice Samba rides Garuda to Shakadvipa and brings eighteen families of Magas.
The Kapila Samhita, a later Odishan text, gives the Samba story in short and sets it at Maitreyavana, identified with Konark: Samba worshipped Surya there for twelve years and was cured. A small stream near the temple is called the Chandrabhaga. The Brahma Purana's Konaditya mahatmya prescribes a sea bath, three circuits of the temple and worship with flowers, incense and lamps, and the rites of Magha Saptami. The Chandrabhaga Mela is held there in Magha.
What is different here:
Moves the forest and river to the Odisha coast; twelve years of penance; no Magas, no floating image. In Behera's summary Narada lures Samba to the bathing place of the women.
On Pausha Shukla Dashami mothers in Odisha rise before sunrise, bathe and cook khichdi, puri, curries and cakes, offering one item in the name of each family member, especially each child. At noon they look at the Sun through a bowl of turmeric water and offer the food; in the evening there is a puja to Yama. The festival remembers Samba's cure after twelve years of penance near Konark.
What is different here:
A living household observance rather than a narrative; the cure is transferred to one's own children.
Three seats of the Sun: Varaha, Bhavishya and Skanda Puranas
Pan-IndiaAll traditions
The Varaha Purana says Samba installed images of the Sun at Udayachala, at Kalapriya south of the Yamuna and at Mulasthana on the setting mountain. The Bhavishya Purana names Mitravana, Mundira and Kalapriya, and has the Sun say he is seen at Sutira in the forenoon, Kalapriya at noon and Mitravana in the afternoon. The Skanda Purana places the morning Sun at Mundira in the east, noon at Kalapriya and evening at Mulasthana. Behera suggests the eastern seat is the Konark shore; Mirashi identified Kalapriya with Kalpi.
What is different here:
Three temples for rising, midday and setting Sun instead of one. Identifications are scholars' proposals.
Some summaries say Samba caught leprosy after being cursed by the sage Durvasa, whom he had mocked. Hazra's reading of the Samba Purana places Durvasa's curse later: it produces the iron pestle that destroys the Yadavas, not the leprosy.
Sources: Studies in the Upapuranas, vol. 1: Saura and Vaisnava Upapuranas, R. C. Hazra (Calcutta, 1958); Wikipedia: Samba Purana; Wikipedia: Multan Sun Temple; Konark: The Black Pagoda, K. S. Behera (Publications Division, Government of India, 2005); Wikipedia: Konark Sun Temple; Wikipedia: Ratha Saptami; Wikipedia: Samba Dashami; Wikipedia: Samba (Krishna's son)