Skanda Purana — Prabhasa Khanda, Shloka 34
तस्माच्च द्विगुणं ज्ञेयं निमिषांतं वरानने । निमिषैः पञ्चदशभिः काष्ठा इत्युच्यते बुधैः । त्रिंशद्भिश्चैव काष्ठाभिः कला प्रोक्ता मनीषिभिः
tasmācca dviguṇaṃ jñeyaṃ nimiṣāṃtaṃ varānane | nimiṣaiḥ pañcadaśabhiḥ kāṣṭhā ityucyate budhaiḥ | triṃśadbhiścaiva kāṣṭhābhiḥ kalā proktā manīṣibhiḥ
ഹേ സുന്ദരമുഖിയേ, അതിന്റെ ഇരട്ടിയെ ‘നിമിഷം’ എന്നു അറിയണം. പതിനഞ്ച് നിമിഷങ്ങളെ പണ്ഡിതർ ‘കാഷ്ഠാ’ എന്നു പറയുന്നു; മുപ്പത് കാഷ്ഠകളാൽ ‘കലാ’ എന്നു ജ്ഞാനികൾ നിർണ്ണയിക്കുന്നു.
Unspecified (Prabhāsakṣetramāhātmya narrator addressing ‘varānane’)
Tirtha: Prabhāsa-kṣetra
Type: kshetra
Listener: Devasenā
Scene: A visual ‘staircase’ of time: truṭi doubling into nimeṣa, then clusters forming kāṣṭhā, then kalā—shown as grouped beads or lotus-petal counts while Skanda explains.
FAQs
Sacred texts map time from minute instants upward, framing human life within a vast, ordered cosmic rhythm.
The passage is embedded in Prabhāsa kṣetra’s māhātmya, though it focuses on kāla (time) rather than a local rite.
None; it provides a technical sequence of time-unit conversions.