Skanda Purana — Mahesvara Khanda, Shloka 59
भेत्ता तडागकूपानां संक्रमाणांरसस्य च । एकपंक्तिस्थितानां च पाकभेदं करोति यः
bhettā taḍāgakūpānāṃ saṃkramāṇāṃrasasya ca | ekapaṃktisthitānāṃ ca pākabhedaṃ karoti yaḥ
जो तळे-कूप फोडतो, सार्वजनिक घाट/पुल/ओलांडणी व जलव्यवस्था बिघडवतो, आणि एकाच पंक्तीत बसलेल्या लोकांच्या भोजनात पाक/भाग वेगळा करून भेद करतो—तो निंद्य पापी आहे।
Sūta (Lomaharṣaṇa) to the sages (deduced)
Type: kund/ghat (generic waterworks and crossings)
Listener: Interlocutor within Kaumārikākhaṇḍa
Scene: A civic-religious scene: pilgrims at a tank/stepwell and a river crossing; a villain damages a well or blocks a causeway; beside it, a communal meal line where a disruptor tries to separate cooking pots—contrasted with dharmic volunteers repairing and serving equally.
FAQs
Protecting shared resources and honoring social fairness are forms of dharma; harming them is a serious moral fault.
No specific tīrtha is named, but the verse strongly implies reverence for water-reservoirs and crossings associated with pilgrimage.
It prescribes not to damage water facilities and not to create discriminatory divisions in communal meals.