Skanda Purana — Nagara Khanda, Shloka 35
यथा वृष्टिं प्रवांछन्ति कर्षुकाः सस्यवृद्धये । तथात्मप्रीतये तेऽपि प्रवांछन्तींदुसंक्षयम्
yathā vṛṣṭiṃ pravāṃchanti karṣukāḥ sasyavṛddhaye | tathātmaprītaye te'pi pravāṃchantīṃdusaṃkṣayam
De même que les cultivateurs désirent la pluie pour l’accroissement des moissons, ainsi les Pitṛs, pour leur propre apaisement, désirent le déclin de la Lune—l’amāvāsyā—comme le moment juste des offrandes.
Unspecified (didactic narrator within Tīrthamāhātmya)
Type: kshetra
Listener: Mahārāja (king)
Scene: Farmers look to monsoon clouds over green fields; parallel scene shows a householder at a riverbank offering piṇḍa and water under a moonless sky; the ‘rain-to-crop’ and ‘amāvāsyā-to-pitṛ’ correspondence is visually echoed by flowing water and abundance motifs.
FAQs
As rain nourishes crops, timely rites nourish the Pitṛs; correct timing is itself a form of dharma.
The verse functions within a sacred-geography discourse but here glorifies the sacred time (amāvāsyā) more than a named location.
Offerances/śrāddha are particularly recommended at indu-saṃkṣaya (amāvāsyā) for pitṛ satisfaction.