Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 96
इति शप्तस्तया सोथ तां शशाप क्रुधान्वितः । कठोरहृदये त्वं तु शिला भव सुदुर्मते
iti śaptastayā sotha tāṃ śaśāpa krudhānvitaḥ | kaṭhorahṛdaye tvaṃ tu śilā bhava sudurmate
അവളുടെ ശാപം ഏറ്റ അവൻ ക്രോധം നിറഞ്ഞവനായി അവളെയും ശപിച്ചു—“ഹേ കഠോരഹൃദയേ! ഹേ ദുര്മതേ! നീ ശിലയായി മാറുക।”
Narrator (contextual); the curse is spoken by the offended male (muni, clarified in later verse-context)
Scene: The cursed man, now enraged, points or raises a hand in counter-curse; the maiden’s body begins to take on stone texture—grey-white sheen—while her face shows fear and remorse, set against a sacred Kāśī backdrop.
FAQs
Anger (krodha) intensifies karmic entanglement; retaliatory speech binds both parties and becomes the seed for later sacred manifestations.
The Kāśī narrative frame points to Avimukta’s tīrtha-network where even a ‘stone’ becomes a sacred locus.
None in this verse; it is part of the causal chain leading to tīrtha-māhātmya.