Skanda Purana — Nagara Khanda, Shloka 17
गां पंकाद्ब्राह्मणीं दास्यात्साधून्स्तेनाद्द्विजं वधात् । मोचयन्ति च ये राजन्न ते नरकगामिनः
gāṃ paṃkādbrāhmaṇīṃ dāsyātsādhūnstenāddvijaṃ vadhāt | mocayanti ca ye rājanna te narakagāminaḥ
ഹേ രാജാവേ! ചെളിയിൽ നിന്ന് പശുവിനെ, ദാസ്യത്തിൽ നിന്ന് ബ്രാഹ്മണിയെ, കള്ളനിൽ നിന്ന് സാദുക്കളെ, വധത്തിൽ നിന്ന് ദ്വിജനെ മോചിപ്പിക്കുന്നവർ നരകഗാമികൾ അല്ല.
Bhīṣma (to Yudhiṣṭhira)
Tirtha: Hāṭakeśvara-kṣetra (ethical upāya within māhātmya)
Type: kshetra
Listener: Yudhiṣṭhira (addressed as rājan)
Scene: A righteous protector rescues a cow stuck in mud, frees a brāhmaṇa woman from bondage, shields sādhus from a thief, and prevents the killing of a dvija—four vignettes forming a moral tableau before a listening king.
FAQs
Active compassion—saving beings from immediate danger and oppression—is upheld as a high form of dharma with immense purifying power.
No single tīrtha is named; the verse emphasizes dharmic rescue-actions within the broader tīrthamāhātmya discourse.
Not a ritual, but prescribed dharma: rescuing a cow, a brāhmaṇī, sādhus, and a dvija from peril (mire, slavery, theft, slaughter).