कृष्णाः कृष्णेतरा या वै तिथयस्ताश्च सारिकाः । द्विपंचदशमासे यास्त्वक्षयुग्मं तथायने
kṛṣṇāḥ kṛṣṇetarā yā vai tithayastāśca sārikāḥ | dvipaṃcadaśamāse yāstvakṣayugmaṃ tathāyane
Tithi-tithi pada paruh gelap (kṛṣṇa-pakṣa) dan paruh terang (śukla-pakṣa) adalah bidak-bidak permainan. Sepasang dadu melambangkan dua belahan bulan, demikian pula dua ayana—Uttarāyaṇa dan Dakṣiṇāyaṇa.
Nārada
Tirtha: Kāśī
Type: kshetra
Listener: Ṛṣis (e.g., Śaunaka-led assembly)
Scene: A cosmic board-game motif: lunar fortnights as pieces, month-halves as dice, and the sun’s north/south courses as the larger arc; Śiva and Devī preside as serene players while Kāśī’s ghāṭs and the Gaṅgā appear as the earthly reflection of cosmic time.
Even the smallest measures of time (tithis) participate in sacred order; time itself is a divine instrument within cosmic play.
No single tīrtha is named; the verse sacralizes calendrical time within the Kailāsa narrative frame.
None explicitly, though the calendrical mapping implicitly supports vrata-timing by tithi and ayana.