Skanda Purana — Brahma Khanda, Shloka 61
शांडिल्य उवाच । अमुष्य बालस्य पिता स विदर्भमहीपतिः । पूर्वजन्मनि पांड्येशो बभूव नृपसत्तमः
śāṃḍilya uvāca | amuṣya bālasya pitā sa vidarbhamahīpatiḥ | pūrvajanmani pāṃḍyeśo babhūva nṛpasattamaḥ
शाण्डिल्य बोले—इस बालक का पिता विदर्भ-देश का अधिपति है। पूर्वजन्म में वह पाण्ड्य-देश का स्वामी, मनुष्यों में श्रेष्ठ राजा था।
Śāṇḍilya
Tirtha: Vidarbha (regional kṣetra reference); Pāṇḍya-deśa (regional kṣetra reference)
Type: kshetra
Listener: the petitioner (father) and assembly (implied)
Scene: Śāṇḍilya, in authoritative calm, reveals the boy’s father’s royal identity and his prior birth as a Pāṇḍya king; the scene shifts from pleading to revelation.
FAQs
It introduces karmic continuity across births: present conditions are explained through past-life status and actions.
No tīrtha is praised here; the verse situates the narrative via kingdoms (Vidarbha, Pāṇḍya).
None; this verse begins the explanatory backstory.