Skanda Purana — Mahesvara Khanda, Shloka 54
कात्यायन उवाच । दानस्य तपसो वापि भगवन्किं च दुष्करम् । किं वा महत्फलं प्रेत्य सारस्वत ब्रवीहि तत्
kātyāyana uvāca | dānasya tapaso vāpi bhagavankiṃ ca duṣkaram | kiṃ vā mahatphalaṃ pretya sārasvata bravīhi tat
कात्यायन म्हणाले—हे भगवन्! दान आणि तप यांपैकी खरेच कोणते अधिक दुष्कर आहे? आणि मृत्यूनंतर कोणते महान फल देते? हे सारस्वत, ते मला सांगा.
Kātyāyana
Listener: Śaunaka and sages (frame)
Scene: Kātyāyana, hands folded, asks Sārasvata seated with a manuscript and water-pot; behind them symbolic scales weigh ‘dāna’ and ‘tapas’; a faint vision of afterlife paths (svarga/mokṣa) appears above.
FAQs
It frames a dharmic inquiry: which practice—charity or austerity—is harder, and which brings the highest posthumous merit.
No specific tīrtha is named in this verse; it functions as a doctrinal question within the Kaumārikākhaṇḍa narrative.
No direct prescription is given; the verse introduces evaluation of dāna (charitable giving) and tapas (austerity).