Skanda Purana — Nagara Khanda, Shloka 54
केवलं क्षीयते लोको नैव वृद्धिं प्रगच्छति । स्वेदजा येऽपि जीवाः स्युस्तेपि याताः परिक्षयम्
kevalaṃ kṣīyate loko naiva vṛddhiṃ pragacchati | svedajā ye'pi jīvāḥ syustepi yātāḥ parikṣayam
«Le monde ne faisait que décroître et ne parvenait nullement à croître. Même les êtres nés de la sueur allèrent jusqu’à l’épuisement total.»
Sūta (continuing narration)
Type: kshetra
Listener: Brahmin audience
Scene: A panoramic depiction of a diminishing world: fewer people, empty cradles, drying ponds, insects and small svedaja life fading—an eerie stillness of non-growth.
FAQs
When cosmic harmony is broken, life declines across all categories; restoration requires re-establishing dharmic order.
Not named in this verse; it describes the widespread effects that motivate divine intervention in the tīrtha narrative.
None; it is descriptive of decline rather than prescriptive of practice.