Skanda Purana — Nagara Khanda, Shloka 51
आनन्दितेन भवता प्रार्थितोऽहं यतो मुने । आनन्देश्वरसंज्ञस्तु ख्यातिं यास्यामि भूतले । एतत्पुरं च मे नाम्ना आनन्दाख्यं भविष्यति
ānanditena bhavatā prārthito'haṃ yato mune | ānandeśvarasaṃjñastu khyātiṃ yāsyāmi bhūtale | etatpuraṃ ca me nāmnā ānandākhyaṃ bhaviṣyati
ഹേ മുനേ, ആനന്ദഭാവത്തോടെ നീ എന്നെ പ്രാർത്ഥിച്ചതിനാൽ ഞാൻ ഭൂതലത്തിൽ ‘ആനന്ദേശ്വരൻ’ എന്ന നാമത്തിൽ പ്രസിദ്ധനാകും. ഈ നഗരവും എന്റെ നാമത്തിൽ ‘ആനന്ദാ’ എന്നു അറിയപ്പെടും.
Śiva
Tirtha: Ānandeśvara; Ānandā (city)
Type: kshetra
Listener: Maṅkaṇaka (muni)
Scene: Śiva declares: because the sage prayed in ānanda, Śiva will be famed as Ānandeśvara, and the city will be called Ānandā—an act of sacred naming that ‘writes’ divinity onto the landscape.
FAQs
A sacred place gains enduring holiness when divine presence is invoked through sincere, joy-filled devotion, leading to sanctified names and fame.
The Ānandeśvara-sthala and the city that becomes known as Ānandā are explicitly established as the chapter’s sanctified locale.
No explicit rite is given; the verse functions as a sthala-etymology (name-origin) grounded in prayer and divine assent.