Skanda Purana — Prabhasa Khanda, Shloka 53
प्रगृह्य सहसा शूलं प्रस्थितः स्वगणैः सह । यज्ञवाटं तु दक्षस्य पराभवभवं ततः । विक्रमन्वीरभद्रेण यत्र विष्णुः स्वयं स्थितः
pragṛhya sahasā śūlaṃ prasthitaḥ svagaṇaiḥ saha | yajñavāṭaṃ tu dakṣasya parābhavabhavaṃ tataḥ | vikramanvīrabhadreṇa yatra viṣṇuḥ svayaṃ sthitaḥ
Grasping his trident at once, he set out with his own gaṇas toward Dakṣa’s sacrificial arena—the very place from which that humiliation had arisen—where Vīrabhadra was displaying his prowess and where Viṣṇu himself was present.
Sūta (Lomaharṣaṇa) to the sages (deduced)
Tirtha: Prabhāsa-kṣetra (narrative frame); Dakṣa-yajñavāṭa (mythic locus)
Type: kshetra
Listener: A addressed ‘bhāminī’ (female interlocutor within the narrative frame)
Scene: Śiva, suddenly gripping the trident, strides toward Dakṣa’s blazing yajña-vedi with a storm of gaṇas; Vīrabhadra stands in the arena mid-feat of martial prowess; Viṣṇu is visibly present as a divine witness.
FAQs
Ritual without reverence becomes hollow; when dharma is violated, the Lord moves to re-establish sacred order.
Prabhāsakṣetra, presented as a sanctified landscape that preserves the memory of cosmic events like Dakṣa’s yajña.
The verse references a yajña (sacrifice) contextually, but does not prescribe a specific rite for the listener.
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