Skanda Purana — Nagara Khanda, Shloka 30
अन्नपानानि जीर्यंति यत्र भक्ष्यं च भक्षितम् । तस्मिन्नेवोदरे गर्भः कथं नाम न जीर्यति
annapānāni jīryaṃti yatra bhakṣyaṃ ca bhakṣitam | tasminnevodare garbhaḥ kathaṃ nāma na jīryati
In eben jenem Bauch, in dem Speise und Trank und alles Gegessene verdaut werden—wie sollte da ein Embryo in demselben Bauch nicht verdaut werden?
Unspecified (deduced: Sūta/Lomaharṣaṇa narrating within a Māhātmya discourse)
Scene: An allegorical medical-philosophical scene: a sage illustrates the belly as a cauldron of digestion, with food transforming; beside it, a symbolic embryo silhouette—used not for shock but for inevitability of natural law.
FAQs
It uses a pointed bodily analogy to argue that ordinary rules have exceptions or higher ordering principles in specific contexts (here, the embryo’s protection).
The verse appears within the Śrīhāṭakeśvara-kṣetra Māhātmya narrative setting in Nāgarakhaṇḍa.
None; it is an illustrative argument rather than a ritual instruction.