Skanda Purana — Nagara Khanda, Shloka 23
न तदस्ति धरापृष्ठे नगरं पत्तनं तथा । तीर्थं वा यत्र नो तस्य विद्यते त्रिदशालयः
na tadasti dharāpṛṣṭhe nagaraṃ pattanaṃ tathā | tīrthaṃ vā yatra no tasya vidyate tridaśālayaḥ
Sur la surface de la terre, il n’était ni cité ni bourg marchand—ni même un tīrtha, gué sacré—où l’on ne trouvât son sanctuaire, demeure des dieux.
Narrator (Skanda Purāṇa narrative voice; exact speaker not explicit in snippet)
Scene: A panoramic sacred map: cities, market-towns, and river-fords each marked by a shining shrine—‘dwelling of the gods’—suggesting a network of sanctuaries across the land.
FAQs
True devotion expresses itself in public sacred works—establishing temples so that divine presence blesses every place.
No single tīrtha is isolated; the verse universalizes tīrtha culture by asserting divine shrines across the land.
Implicitly, the building/establishing of temples (deva-ālaya) as a meritorious religious act.