Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 83
अपि सर्वगते क्वापि भिक्षां मा यच्छ सुंदरि । तथेत्युक्ता भवानी सा भवं भवनिवारणम्
api sarvagate kvāpi bhikṣāṃ mā yaccha suṃdari | tathetyuktā bhavānī sā bhavaṃ bhavanivāraṇam
“സുന്ദരി! അവൻ എല്ലായിടത്തും പോയാലും എവിടെയും ഭിക്ഷ നൽകരുത്.” എന്നു പറഞ്ഞപ്പോൾ, ഭവനിവാരിണിയായ ഭവാനി “തഥാസ്തു” എന്നു സമ്മതിച്ചു।
Śiva (Hara) speaking to Devī; narrated within Skanda’s discourse (deduced)
Tirtha: Kāśī (Avimukta-kṣetra)
Type: kshetra
Listener: Purāṇic audience (contextual)
Scene: Śiva instructs Pārvatī with a calm but firm gesture; Pārvatī listens and assents, her expression compassionate yet resolute—suggesting that the forthcoming denial of alms is purposeful, not cruel.
FAQs
Spiritual maturity is proven when support is withdrawn; endurance and faith remain steady even under divine testing.
Kāśī, portrayed as the arena of Śiva-Śakti līlā that refines the saintly.
No new rite is prescribed; the verse concerns the alms practice (bhikṣā) being deliberately withheld as a test.