Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 34
तीर्थस्नानार्थिनी नारी पतिपादोदकं पिबेत् । शंकरादपि विष्णोर्वा पतिरेकोधिकः स्त्रियाः
tīrthasnānārthinī nārī patipādodakaṃ pibet | śaṃkarādapi viṣṇorvā patirekodhikaḥ striyāḥ
तीर्थस्नानाचे पुण्य इच्छिणाऱ्या स्त्रीने पतीच्या चरणप्रक्षालनाचे जल प्राशन करावे। स्त्रीसाठी गृहधर्मात पती शंकर वा विष्णूपेक्षाही अधिक परम मानला आहे।
Skanda (deduced for Kāśīkhaṇḍa context)
Tirtha: Kāśī-kṣetra (contextual)
Type: kshetra
Scene: Inside a modest Kāśī household courtyard: a devoted wife offers water at her husband’s feet; a small lota and copper vessel; in the background, a faint silhouette of Viśvanātha temple spire and Gaṅgā ghāṭ steps, suggesting the ‘tīrtha within the home’.
FAQs
It emphasizes gṛhastha-dharma: for a married woman, devoted service to the husband is presented as a principal religious discipline yielding tīrtha-like merit.
No single tīrtha is named in this verse; it uses the idea of tīrtha-bathing as a benchmark for merit within the Kāśī-khaṇḍa discourse.
Drinking the water from washing the husband’s feet (pati-pādodaka) is prescribed as a devotional act associated with tīrtha-like merit.