Skanda Purana — Prabhasa Khanda, Shloka 63
भवद्भिर्नोत्सहे स्थातुं जनस्पर्शविनाकृतः । एवमुक्त्वा ततो देवि समुद्रः सरितांपतिः । आत्मानं शोषयामास दुःखेन महता स्थितः
bhavadbhirnotsahe sthātuṃ janasparśavinākṛtaḥ | evamuktvā tato devi samudraḥ saritāṃpatiḥ | ātmānaṃ śoṣayāmāsa duḥkhena mahatā sthitaḥ
„Ich vermag nicht in eurer Gegenwart zu bleiben, da mir die Berührung mit lebenden Wesen genommen ist.“ So sprach er, o Göttin, und der Ozean —Herr der Flüsse— begann, sich selbst auszutrocknen, in gewaltigem Kummer verharrend.
Narrator (contextual), reporting Samudra’s words and act
Tirtha: Prabhāsa-kṣetra
Type: kshetra
Listener: Devi addressed within the narrative; broader audience is the listening sages
Scene: The Ocean, personified as a majestic deity, speaks to the Goddess and begins to dry himself up; the shoreline recedes, waves stilling, with a palpable aura of sorrow over the coastal tīrtha.
FAQs
Separation from the world and the burden of curse-induced fate can drive even cosmic beings toward intense penitential transformation.
Prabhāsakṣetra, whose māhātmya frames the ocean’s transformation as part of the tīrtha’s sacred history.
No direct ritual; it depicts tapas-like self-restraint (drying up) as a narrative act.