Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 77
सूचीभेद्येऽथ संदंशे लालापे क्षुरधारके । प्रत्येकं नरके त्वेष पात्यतां कल्पसंख्यया
sūcībhedye'tha saṃdaṃśe lālāpe kṣuradhārake | pratyekaṃ narake tveṣa pātyatāṃ kalpasaṃkhyayā
—ಸೂಚೀಭೇದ್ಯ, ನಂತರ ಸಂದಂಶ, ಲಾಲಾಪ, ಕ್ಷುರಧಾರಕ—ಈ ಪ್ರತಿಯೊಂದು ನರಕದಲ್ಲಿಯೂ ಅವನು ಒಂದೊಂದಾಗಿ ಕಲ್ಪಸಂಖ್ಯೆಯ ಕಾಲ ಬೀಳಿಸಲ್ಪಡಲಿ.
Skanda (deduced: Kāśīkhaṇḍa commonly Skanda → Agastya)
Tirtha: Kāśī (Avimukta) implied as deliverance from long saṃsāric suffering
Type: kshetra
Listener: Audience within the Kāśī-khaṇḍa frame (not explicit)
Scene: A grim procession through needle-piercing torment (Sūcībhedya), crushing with tongs/presses (Saṃdaṃśa), a realm of drooling/forced saliva and thirst (Lālāpa), and razor-edge pathways (Kṣuradhāraka); above, a cosmic clock motif indicating ‘kalpa-sankhyā’.
FAQs
Persistent adharma yields prolonged and repeated suffering; moral accountability is inescapable in the Purāṇic vision.
None is named; the focus is on naraka consequences within the Kāśī narrative arc.
No direct prescription; it is a judicial pronouncement of punishment.