Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 11
स्तंभनी मोहनीमाया बहुमाया बलोत्कटा । उच्चाटनी महोल्कास्या दनुजेंद्रक्षयंकरी
staṃbhanī mohanīmāyā bahumāyā balotkaṭā | uccāṭanī maholkāsyā danujeṃdrakṣayaṃkarī
She is the Power that immobilizes; the bewitching Māyā; the wielder of manifold illusions, fierce in strength. She is the force that drives away and uproots; the great flame-faced One—bringing about the destruction of the lords of the Dānava hosts.
Skanda
Tirtha: Kāśī (Avimukta-kṣetra)
Type: kshetra
Scene: A fierce Devī-form with flame-like face (maholkāsyā), radiating mantric power—stambhana and mohana as visible bands of light immobilizing and bewildering dānava-lords; the battlefield set against a subtle Kāśī skyline/ghāṭa silhouette.
FAQs
Divine power is not merely gentle; it also protects dharma by restraining, dispelling, and destroying adharmic forces.
The larger narrative belongs to the Kāśīkhaṇḍa, thus framed within the sanctity of Kāśī (Vārāṇasī), even when the verse itself lists Devī’s epithets.
No explicit vrata, dāna, snāna, or japa is prescribed in this verse; it is primarily a stuti-like enumeration of Devī’s powers.