Skanda Purana — Mahesvara Khanda, Shloka 45
अहं पूर्विकया ते वै न्यषेधंत परस्परम् । अहं पूर्वमहं पूर्वमिति वीरा यथा रणे
ahaṃ pūrvikayā te vai nyaṣedhaṃta parasparam | ahaṃ pūrvamahaṃ pūrvamiti vīrā yathā raṇe
‘ഞാൻ ആദ്യം’ എന്ന അഹങ്കാരത്തോടെ അവർ പരസ്പരം തടഞ്ഞു; ‘ഞാൻ ആദ്യം, ഞാൻ ആദ്യം’ എന്ന് യുദ്ധഭൂമിയിലെ വീരന്മാരെപ്പോലെ।
Narrator (unnamed first-person context continuing; likely Sūta’s narration)
Listener: Audience of the Purāṇic narration; immediate listeners are the competing elders
Scene: Twelve elder sages animatedly interrupt each other, each leaning forward with raised hand, like warriors vying for the first strike; the questioner watches, composed.
FAQs
Even the learned can be seized by ego; dharmic learning requires humility so that truth, not ‘I-first,’ prevails.
The verse is part of the same āśrama-region narrative; it does not name a particular tīrtha.
None; it functions as a moral observation about conduct in scholarly and spiritual assemblies.