Skanda Purana — Nagara Khanda, Shloka 82
सुश्रांतः क्षुत्पिपासार्तो निशीथे तमसावृते । गर्तायां पतितोऽकस्मात्पूर्णायां पयसा नृपः
suśrāṃtaḥ kṣutpipāsārto niśīthe tamasāvṛte | gartāyāṃ patito'kasmātpūrṇāyāṃ payasā nṛpaḥ
अतिशय थकलेला, भूक-तहानें व्याकुळ, अंधाराने व्यापलेल्या मध्यरात्री तो राजा अचानक पाण्याने भरलेल्या खड्ड्यात पडला।
Narrator (exact speaker not stated in excerpt)
Tirtha: Garta-tīrtha (pit/kund within Camatkārapura; descriptive name)
Type: kund
Listener: Brāhmaṇa audience (continued address context)
Scene: Midnight scene: dense darkness, the king stumbling from exhaustion, then falling into a circular pit brimming with water; attendants absent or distant; moon obscured; the water faintly glows, hinting sanctity.
FAQs
Even unintended contact with a sacred place can become the doorway to purification when a tīrtha’s power is present.
The incident occurs in the Camatkārapura-kṣetra context; the pit of water functions as the tīrtha medium in the narrative.
No explicit prescription—this verse narrates an accidental immersion associated with tīrtha power.