Skanda Purana — Nagara Khanda, Shloka 16
अपि चाष्टकुलोत्पन्नः सामान्यः किं पुनर्हि यः । अशुद्धेन तु विप्रेण यः श्राद्धा द्यं करोति हि । तस्य भस्महुतं यद्वत्सर्वं तज्जायते वृथा
api cāṣṭakulotpannaḥ sāmānyaḥ kiṃ punarhi yaḥ | aśuddhena tu vipreṇa yaḥ śrāddhā dyaṃ karoti hi | tasya bhasmahutaṃ yadvatsarvaṃ tajjāyate vṛthā
Selbst wenn man in einer achtfachen edlen Linie geboren ist – wie viel mehr in anderen Fällen –, wenn Śrāddha und verwandte Riten von einem unreinen Brahmanen durchgeführt werden, wird alles vergeblich, wie eine Opfergabe, die in Asche gegossen wird.
Narrative voice (speaker not explicit in this verse)
Type: kshetra
Scene: A symbolic contrast: on one side, a śrāddha performed by an impure officiant dissolves into grey ash imagery; on the other, a purified officiant yields luminous offerings reaching serene ancestral figures—illustrating ‘bhāsmāhuta’ futility versus true efficacy.
FAQs
Ritual acts require purity and proper qualification; otherwise, the intended merit and ancestral benefit do not manifest.
The verse is part of the Hāṭakeśvara-kṣetra-māhātmya narrative framework but focuses on śrāddha validity rather than a site’s praise.
A warning that śrāddha and allied rites should not be conducted by an aśuddha (impure) vipra, or the rite becomes ineffective.