Skanda Purana — Prabhasa Khanda, Shloka 21
तत्स्नानं यत्र युध्यन्ते गजा दंतविघट्टनैः । सा संध्या यत्र निहतैः कबन्धैर्भूर्विभूषिता
tatsnānaṃ yatra yudhyante gajā daṃtavighaṭṭanaiḥ | sā saṃdhyā yatra nihataiḥ kabandhairbhūrvibhūṣitā
എവിടെ ആനകൾ ദന്തങ്ങൾ കൂട്ടിയിടിച്ച് യുദ്ധം ചെയ്യുമോ, അതാണ് ‘സ്നാനം’. എവിടെ കൊല്ലപ്പെട്ടവരുടെ തലവെട്ടപ്പെട്ട ഉടലുകൾ കൊണ്ട് ഭൂമി അലങ്കരിക്കപ്പെടുമോ, അതാണ് ‘സന്ധ്യാ’ ആരാധന.
Nārada (expressing a violent inversion of ritual language)
Tirtha: Vastrāpatha-kṣetra
Type: kshetra
Listener: Naimiṣāraṇya sages (frame) / internal interlocutor (unspecified here)
Scene: Elephants clash tusks like waves; the ‘bath’ is a churn of dust and blood. At ‘twilight,’ the ground is strewn with headless trunks, a horrific garland upon the earth.
FAQs
It warns how a mind overtaken by rajas can distort sacred categories—calling violence ‘worship’—highlighting the need for right discernment.
The verse belongs to the Vastrāpathakṣetra Māhātmya (Prabhāsa Khaṇḍa), using dramatic imagery within the sacred-place narrative.
Snāna (bathing) and saṁdhyā (twilight worship) are mentioned, but in a deliberately inverted, metaphorical way.