Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 1
स्कंद उवाच । वाराणसीति प्रथितं यथा चानंदकाननम् । तथा च कथयामीह देवदेवेनभाषितम्
skaṃda uvāca | vārāṇasīti prathitaṃ yathā cānaṃdakānanam | tathā ca kathayāmīha devadevenabhāṣitam
ಸ್ಕಂದನು ಹೇಳಿದರು—ಇದು ‘ವಾರಾಣಸಿ’ ಎಂದು ಹೇಗೆ ಪ್ರಸಿದ್ಧವೋ, ಹಾಗೆಯೇ ‘ಆನಂದಕಾನನ’ ಎಂದೂ ಏಕೆ ಕರೆಯಲ್ಪಡುತ್ತದೆ ಎಂಬುದನ್ನು; ದೇವದೇವನು ಹೇಳಿದುದನ್ನೇ ನಾನು ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಯಥಾವತ್ತಾಗಿ ವಿವರಿಸುತ್ತೇನೆ।
Skanda
Tirtha: Vārāṇasī / Ānandakānana (Kāśī)
Type: kshetra
Listener: Sage-assembly (frame tradition; often Umā as immediate addressee in Kāśī-khaṇḍa dialogues)
Scene: Skanda begins a new exposition: a panoramic Kāśī—Gaṅgā curve, ghāṭas, temples—overlaid with a subtle ‘forest of bliss’ vision (Ānandakānana) as if the city is simultaneously urban and divine woodland; the words ‘Vārāṇasī’ and ‘Ānandakānana’ appear as sacred calligraphy in the air.
FAQs
Kāśī’s holiness is grounded in divine revelation; its very names encode its sacred identity and blissful, liberating nature.
Vārāṇasī/Kāśī, especially as Ānandakānana and within the Avimukta sacred field.
None; the verse introduces an explanatory māhātmya about Kāśī’s sacred names.