Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 9
विभ्रमो यत्र नारीषु नविद्वत्सु च कर्हिचित् । नद्यः कुटिलगामिन्यो न यत्र विषये प्रजाः
vibhramo yatra nārīṣu navidvatsu ca karhicit | nadyaḥ kuṭilagāminyo na yatra viṣaye prajāḥ
Qu’on sache souillée cette contrée où l’égarement domine parmi les femmes et où les savants ne sont jamais honorés ; où les rivières s’écoulent en méandres capricieux, et où le peuple ne demeure pas fermement dans son domaine légitime.
Skanda
Tirtha: Kāśī / Avimukta (implied)
Type: kshetra
Listener: null
Scene: A moral allegory: a ‘crooked river’ winding through a troubled town where scholars are ignored; in the distance, a luminous Kāśī skyline with temples and ghāṭas symbolizes steadiness and dharma.
FAQs
A society declines where wisdom is not respected and where confusion replaces discernment; Kāśī is implicitly extolled as the opposite—clarity, stability, and dharma.
Kāśī (Vārāṇasī) is praised indirectly by describing the marks of places that lack Kāśī’s dharmic excellence.
No direct ritual is prescribed in this verse; it functions as a moral-geographical diagnosis supporting the Mahātmya of Kāśī.