Skanda Purana — Nagara Khanda, Shloka 49
अहमासं पुरा राजा श्वेतोनाम महामुने । आनर्ताधिपतिः पापः सर्वलोकनिपीडकः
ahamāsaṃ purā rājā śvetonāma mahāmune | ānartādhipatiḥ pāpaḥ sarvalokanipīḍakaḥ
ഹേ മഹാമുനേ, ഞാൻ മുമ്പ് ശ്വേതൻ എന്ന രാജാവായിരുന്നു—ആനർത്തത്തിന്റെ അധിപതി—പാപാചാരിയും സർവ്വജനങ്ങളെ പീഡിപ്പിക്കുന്നവനും।
Unspecified (a former king narrating his past to a sage within the Tīrthamāhātmya)
Listener: Mahāmuni
Scene: A flashback tableau: King Śveta on a throne in Ānarta, stern and oppressive, with distressed subjects below; the confession voiceover frames the scene as condemnation of his past.
FAQs
Even a powerful ruler must face dharma: oppression and sin lead to downfall, and the path begins with honest confession.
The verse sets up a tīrtha-redemption narrative; the specific holy water is clarified in the subsequent verses describing bathing in the auspicious water here.
None explicitly in this verse; it introduces the speaker’s sinful past as context for later tīrtha-snānaphala (merit of bathing).