Skanda Purana — Prabhasa Khanda, Shloka 63
भवद्भिर्नोत्सहे स्थातुं जनस्पर्शविनाकृतः । एवमुक्त्वा ततो देवि समुद्रः सरितांपतिः । आत्मानं शोषयामास दुःखेन महता स्थितः
bhavadbhirnotsahe sthātuṃ janasparśavinākṛtaḥ | evamuktvā tato devi samudraḥ saritāṃpatiḥ | ātmānaṃ śoṣayāmāsa duḥkhena mahatā sthitaḥ
«Je ne puis demeurer en votre présence, privé du contact des êtres vivants.» Ayant ainsi parlé, ô Déesse, l’Océan —seigneur des rivières— se mit à se dessécher lui-même, demeurant dans une peine immense.
Narrator (contextual), reporting Samudra’s words and act
Tirtha: Prabhāsa-kṣetra
Type: kshetra
Listener: Devi addressed within the narrative; broader audience is the listening sages
Scene: The Ocean, personified as a majestic deity, speaks to the Goddess and begins to dry himself up; the shoreline recedes, waves stilling, with a palpable aura of sorrow over the coastal tīrtha.
FAQs
Separation from the world and the burden of curse-induced fate can drive even cosmic beings toward intense penitential transformation.
Prabhāsakṣetra, whose māhātmya frames the ocean’s transformation as part of the tīrtha’s sacred history.
No direct ritual; it depicts tapas-like self-restraint (drying up) as a narrative act.