Shloka 1
भूमिदान-प्रसङ्गः । काश्यपी-पृथिवी तथा उतथ्य-वरुण-संवादः
Land-gift episode; Pṛthivī Kāśyapī; Utathya–Varuṇa dispute
अपन काल छा | अत-७#-र- चतुस्त्रिंशर्दाधिकशततमो< ध्याय: स्कन्ददेवका धर्मसम्बन्धी रहस्य तथा भगवान् विष्णु और भीष्मजीके द्वारा माहात्म्यका वर्णन स्कन्द उवाच ममाप्यनुमतो धर्मस्तं शृणुध्वं समाहिता: । नीलषण्डस्य शुंगाभ्यां गृहीत्वा मृत्तिकां तु यः:
skanda uvāca | mamāpy anumato dharmas taṃ śṛṇudhvaṃ samāhitāḥ | nīlaṣaṇḍasya śuṅgābhyāṃ gṛhītvā mṛttikāṃ tu yaḥ |
Skanda sprach: „Auch von mir ist diese Form des Dharma gebilligt; nun will ich sie verkünden — hört mit gesammelter Aufmerksamkeit. Wer Lehm mit den beiden ‚Hörnern‘ (Vorsprüngen) des blauen Klumpens, des nīlaṣaṇḍa, aufnimmt …“
स्कन्द उवाच
Educational Q&A
Skanda introduces a dharma (a sanctioned religious-ethical practice) and urges the listeners to receive it with mental composure and attention, indicating that the instruction concerns a specific meritorious act involving taking clay/earth.
Skanda begins an instructional discourse: he announces that he too endorses a particular dharma and starts describing the qualifying action—someone taking clay with the two ‘horns’/tips of a blue clod or mass—setting up the details that continue in the following verse(s).