Skanda Purana — Nagara Khanda, Shloka 9
सूत उवाच माघस्य कृष्णपक्षे या तिथिश्चैव चतुर्दशी । तस्या रात्रिः समाख्याता शिवरात्रिसमुद्भवा
sūta uvāca māghasya kṛṣṇapakṣe yā tithiścaiva caturdaśī | tasyā rātriḥ samākhyātā śivarātrisamudbhavā
Sūta dit : «Dans le mois de Māgha, durant la quinzaine sombre (kṛṣṇa-pakṣa), le quatorzième jour lunaire (caturdaśī) : sa nuit est déclarée Śivarātri, la nuit d’où le nom de Śivarātri est connu.»
Sūta (Lomaharṣaṇa/Sauti)
Tirtha: Śivarātri (as sacred time)
Type: kshetra
Listener: Ṛṣis
Scene: Sūta instructing sages with a lunar calendar motif: dark fortnight of Māgha, the fourteenth tithi, and the sanctified night; a crescent-to-new-moon sky over a liṅga shrine.
FAQs
Sacred observances depend on sacred time: aligning worship with the correct tithi is part of Purāṇic dharma.
The timing is taught within the Maṃkaṇeśvara tīrtha narrative of Nāgara Khaṇḍa, Adhyāya 266.
Śivarātri is to be observed on Māgha month’s kṛṣṇapakṣa caturdaśī night.