Skanda Purana — Mahesvara Khanda, Shloka 59
भेत्ता तडागकूपानां संक्रमाणांरसस्य च । एकपंक्तिस्थितानां च पाकभेदं करोति यः
bhettā taḍāgakūpānāṃ saṃkramāṇāṃrasasya ca | ekapaṃktisthitānāṃ ca pākabhedaṃ karoti yaḥ
കുളങ്ങളും കിണറുകളും തകർക്കുന്നവൻ, പൊതുഘട്ടം/പാലം/കടപ്പാതയും ജലവ്യവസ്ഥയും ഭംഗപ്പെടുത്തുന്നവൻ, ഒരേ പംക്തിയിൽ ഇരിക്കുന്നവരുടെ ഭോജനത്തിൽ പാചകം/വിഹിതം വേർതിരിച്ച് ഭേദം സൃഷ്ടിക്കുന്നവൻ—അവൻ നിന്ദ്യ പാപി।
Sūta (Lomaharṣaṇa) to the sages (deduced)
Type: kund/ghat (generic waterworks and crossings)
Listener: Interlocutor within Kaumārikākhaṇḍa
Scene: A civic-religious scene: pilgrims at a tank/stepwell and a river crossing; a villain damages a well or blocks a causeway; beside it, a communal meal line where a disruptor tries to separate cooking pots—contrasted with dharmic volunteers repairing and serving equally.
FAQs
Protecting shared resources and honoring social fairness are forms of dharma; harming them is a serious moral fault.
No specific tīrtha is named, but the verse strongly implies reverence for water-reservoirs and crossings associated with pilgrimage.
It prescribes not to damage water facilities and not to create discriminatory divisions in communal meals.