Skanda Purana — Nagara Khanda, Shloka 4
अश्मकुट्टाः स्थिताः केचिद्दंतोलूखलिनः परे । शीर्णपर्णाशनाः केचिज्जलाहारास्तथा परे । वायुभक्षास्तथैवान्ये तपस्तेपुः सुदारुणम्
aśmakuṭṭāḥ sthitāḥ keciddaṃtolūkhalinaḥ pare | śīrṇaparṇāśanāḥ kecijjalāhārāstathā pare | vāyubhakṣāstathaivānye tapastepuḥ sudāruṇam
काहीजण दगड कुटत कुटत तप करीत, तर काही दातांनाच उखळी मानून। काहीजण गळलेल्या पानांवर जगत, काही फक्त जलाहारी, आणि काही वायुभक्ष होऊन अतिशय कठोर तप करीत।
Viśvāmitra
Tirtha: Himavān tapas-bhūmi (ugra-tapas locus)
Type: peak
Listener: Implied internal audience
Scene: A dramatic panorama of multiple ascetic feats: some striking stones (aśma-kuṭṭa), some performing ‘dantolūkhalin’ (teeth-as-mortar) imagery, others eating only dry fallen leaves, others subsisting on water, and a few depicted as motionless in wind, symbolizing ‘vāyu-bhakṣa’; all under stark Himalayan cliffs.
FAQs
The sacred landscape is upheld by tapas; renunciation and endurance are portrayed as forces that sanctify a tīrtha.
The Himālaya āśrama-tīrtha milieu, characterized by communities of intense ascetics.
No formal rite; the verse catalogs austerity-modes (leaf-diet, water-only, breath-only) as penance disciplines.