Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 54
कथं स राजा धर्मिष्ठः प्रजापालनतत्परः । वियोज्यते पुरः काश्या दिवोदासो महीपतिः
kathaṃ sa rājā dharmiṣṭhaḥ prajāpālanatatparaḥ | viyojyate puraḥ kāśyā divodāso mahīpatiḥ
How could that king—most righteous and intent on guarding his subjects—Divodāsa, lord of the earth, be separated from the holy city of Kāśī?
Śiva (Devadeva) (contextual continuation of reply)
Tirtha: Kāśī
Type: kshetra
Scene: A compassionate ethical question: how can Divodāsa—righteous and devoted to protecting his subjects—be removed from Kāśī? Śiva’s concern reflects dharmic sensitivity.
FAQs
Righteous leadership and protection of subjects are upheld as high dharma, making any displacement ethically complex and requiring dhārmic justification.
Kāśī/Vārāṇasī, presented as a city whose very rulership is intertwined with dharma and divine presence.
None; the verse frames a dharmic-political question rather than a ritual act.
Read Skanda Purana in the Vedapath app
Scan the QR code to open this directly in the app, with audio, word-by-word meanings, and more.