Skanda Purana — Mahesvara Khanda, Shloka 59
भेत्ता तडागकूपानां संक्रमाणांरसस्य च । एकपंक्तिस्थितानां च पाकभेदं करोति यः
bhettā taḍāgakūpānāṃ saṃkramāṇāṃrasasya ca | ekapaṃktisthitānāṃ ca pākabhedaṃ karoti yaḥ
池や井戸を破壊し、公共の渡し場や水利の営みを妨げ、また同じ列での共同の食事において調理や食分を分けて差別を生じさせる者—その者は断罪される。
Sūta (Lomaharṣaṇa) to the sages (deduced)
Type: kund/ghat (generic waterworks and crossings)
Listener: Interlocutor within Kaumārikākhaṇḍa
Scene: A civic-religious scene: pilgrims at a tank/stepwell and a river crossing; a villain damages a well or blocks a causeway; beside it, a communal meal line where a disruptor tries to separate cooking pots—contrasted with dharmic volunteers repairing and serving equally.
FAQs
Protecting shared resources and honoring social fairness are forms of dharma; harming them is a serious moral fault.
No specific tīrtha is named, but the verse strongly implies reverence for water-reservoirs and crossings associated with pilgrimage.
It prescribes not to damage water facilities and not to create discriminatory divisions in communal meals.