Skanda Purana — Prabhasa Khanda, Shloka 21
तत्स्नानं यत्र युध्यन्ते गजा दंतविघट्टनैः । सा संध्या यत्र निहतैः कबन्धैर्भूर्विभूषिता
tatsnānaṃ yatra yudhyante gajā daṃtavighaṭṭanaiḥ | sā saṃdhyā yatra nihataiḥ kabandhairbhūrvibhūṣitā
«Voilà le bain», là où les éléphants se battent, heurtant leurs défenses. «Voilà l’adoration du crépuscule», là où la terre est parée de troncs sans tête des morts.
Nārada (expressing a violent inversion of ritual language)
Tirtha: Vastrāpatha-kṣetra
Type: kshetra
Listener: Naimiṣāraṇya sages (frame) / internal interlocutor (unspecified here)
Scene: Elephants clash tusks like waves; the ‘bath’ is a churn of dust and blood. At ‘twilight,’ the ground is strewn with headless trunks, a horrific garland upon the earth.
FAQs
It warns how a mind overtaken by rajas can distort sacred categories—calling violence ‘worship’—highlighting the need for right discernment.
The verse belongs to the Vastrāpathakṣetra Māhātmya (Prabhāsa Khaṇḍa), using dramatic imagery within the sacred-place narrative.
Snāna (bathing) and saṁdhyā (twilight worship) are mentioned, but in a deliberately inverted, metaphorical way.