Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 28
क्षयी च तस्य विषये कोप्याकर्णि न केनचित् । त्रिविष्टपे क्षपानाथः पक्षेपक्षे क्षयीष्यते
kṣayī ca tasya viṣaye kopyākarṇi na kenacit | triviṣṭape kṣapānāthaḥ pakṣepakṣe kṣayīṣyate
ಅವನ ರಾಜ್ಯದಲ್ಲಿ ‘ಕ್ಷಯ’ (ಹ್ರಾಸ) ಎಂಬುದು ಯಾರಿಗೂ ಎಂದಿಗೂ ಕೇಳಿಬಂದಿಲ್ಲ; ಆದರೆ ತ್ರಿವಿಷ್ಟಪ ಸ್ವರ್ಗದಲ್ಲಿ ಕ್ಷಪಾನಾಥ ಚಂದ್ರನು ಪಕ್ಷೇಪಕ್ಷೇ ಕ್ಷೀಣಿಸುತ್ತಾನೆ।
Skanda (deduced; Kāśīkhaṇḍa context typically Skanda → Agastya)
Tirtha: Kāśīkṣetra (Avimukta)
Type: kshetra
Listener: Audience of the Kāśī-māhātmya discourse (not explicit)
Scene: Symbolic contrast: a serene, ever-luminous Kāśī cityscape with steady lamp-flames; above, the Moon shown in successive phases to indicate inevitable waning, highlighting Kāśī’s ‘non-waning’ auspiciousness.
FAQs
Sacred Kāśī is depicted as free from diminution—its dharmic and auspicious power is steadier than even celestial cycles.
Kāśī (Vārāṇasī), implied as the ‘non-waning’ holy realm in contrast to the lunar waning in heaven.
None; the verse uses cosmological imagery to praise the exceptional auspiciousness of the realm.