Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 36
प्रिये चतुर्दशैतानि श्रियोहेतूनि सुंदरि । एतेषां समवायोयं मुक्तिक्षेत्रमिहेरितम्
priye caturdaśaitāni śriyohetūni suṃdari | eteṣāṃ samavāyoyaṃ muktikṣetramiheritam
愛しき者よ、美しき者よ——この十四は繁栄の因である。これらの総和の臨在こそ、ここに解脱の聖域として説き示される。
Skanda
Tirtha: Muktikṣetra Kāśī (Avimukta) as the samavāya of fourteen liṅgas
Type: kshetra
Listener: Pārvatī
Scene: Śiva instructs Pārvatī, gesturing to a mandala-like map of Kāśī with fourteen luminous liṅga-nodes whose combined radiance forms the ‘mukti-kṣetra’.
FAQs
Kāśī’s liberating power is not abstract: it is embodied in a network of sacred Śiva-liṅgas whose united sanctity makes the city a mukti-kṣetra.
Kāśī/Avimukta, defined as the ‘mukti-kṣetra’ through the collective presence of fourteen principal liṅgas.
No direct prescription; it provides the doctrinal basis for undertaking darśana and worship of the fourteen liṅgas as a unified pilgrimage.