Skanda Purana — Prabhasa Khanda, Shloka 102
एवं स वाडवो वह्निः सुराणां भक्षणोद्यतः । वंचितो विष्णुना याति मेधामाधाय यत्नतः
evaṃ sa vāḍavo vahniḥ surāṇāṃ bhakṣaṇodyataḥ | vaṃcito viṣṇunā yāti medhāmādhāya yatnataḥ
In this way that Vāḍava fire—intent on consuming the gods—was outwitted by Viṣṇu, and it departed, taking its resolve into restraint through careful effort.
Narrator
Tirtha: Prabhāsa-kṣetra
Type: kshetra
Listener: (Contextual) audience/ṛṣis
Scene: The Vāḍava fire, personified as a fierce, horse-faced or flame-bodied being, surges toward the devas; Viṣṇu intervenes with calm authority, and the fire’s momentum collapses into controlled withdrawal, as if bound by an unseen vow.
FAQs
The Preserver protects cosmic balance not only by force but by upāya—skillful, dharmic strategy.
Prabhāsakṣetra, whose māhātmya recounts divine interventions linked to the ocean and world-protection.
No explicit rite; the verse concludes a protective episode (rakṣaṇa) within the kṣetra’s praise.
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