Skanda Purana — Nagara Khanda, Shloka 108
अनुग्रहप्रदानेन क्षमा यस्मात्तपस्विनाम् । कोकिलानां स्वरो रूपं नारीरूपं पतिव्रता । विद्या रूपं कुरूपाणां क्षमा रूपं तपस्विनाम्
anugrahapradānena kṣamā yasmāttapasvinām | kokilānāṃ svaro rūpaṃ nārīrūpaṃ pativratā | vidyā rūpaṃ kurūpāṇāṃ kṣamā rūpaṃ tapasvinām
Parce que les ascètes dispensent la grâce, le pardon est véritablement leur parure. La beauté du coucou est sa voix; la beauté de la femme est sa fidélité d’épouse; les laids sont embellis par le savoir; et les ascètes sont embellis par le pardon.
Narrator or a didactic voice within the dialogue (gnomic/aphoristic teaching embedded in the story)
Type: kshetra
Scene: The sage delivers an aphoristic teaching to the assembled listeners: symbolic vignettes appear—cuckoo singing, a devoted wife beside her husband, a scholar illuminating an ‘unattractive’ figure, and an ascetic radiating forgiveness—each illustrating ‘beauty as virtue.’
FAQs
Forgiveness is the highest ornament of the spiritually disciplined; it is the visible sign of inner greatness and grace.
No single site is named; the verse functions as a universal dharma-teaching within a tīrtha-mahātmya chapter.
No specific ritual; it prescribes a virtue—kṣamā—as the defining practice of tapasvins.