Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 74
यामाख्या मे गणाः संति घोरा विकृतमूर्त्तयः । मूषायां ते धमंत्यादौ क्षेत्रदुष्कृतकारिणः
yāmākhyā me gaṇāḥ saṃti ghorā vikṛtamūrttayaḥ | mūṣāyāṃ te dhamaṃtyādau kṣetraduṣkṛtakāriṇaḥ
माझे ‘याम’ नावाचे गण अत्यंत घोर व विकृतमूर्ती आहेत। क्षेत्रात दुष्कृत करणाऱ्यांना ते प्रथम भट्टीत फुंकर देऊन तापवितात।
Skanda (deduced)
Tirtha: Kāśī-kṣetra
Type: kshetra
Scene: A grim procession of distorted, terrifying Yāma-gaṇas dragging sinners; a blazing furnace (mūṣā) where they are forced toward the fire, set against a distant silhouette of Kāśī’s sacred skyline to contrast holiness and transgression.
FAQs
The holiness of Kāśī demands reverence; abusing the kṣetra is depicted as attracting severe corrective consequences.
Kāśī-kṣetra (the sacred field of Vārāṇasī) as a morally charged landscape.
None; it describes punitive afterlife processes rather than a rite.