Skanda Purana — Nagara Khanda, Shloka 30
अन्नपानानि जीर्यंति यत्र भक्ष्यं च भक्षितम् । तस्मिन्नेवोदरे गर्भः कथं नाम न जीर्यति
annapānāni jīryaṃti yatra bhakṣyaṃ ca bhakṣitam | tasminnevodare garbhaḥ kathaṃ nāma na jīryati
ज्या पोटात अन्न-पाणी आणि खाल्लेले पदार्थ पचतात, त्याच पोटात गर्भ कसा काय पचणार नाही?
Unspecified (deduced: Sūta/Lomaharṣaṇa narrating within a Māhātmya discourse)
Scene: An allegorical medical-philosophical scene: a sage illustrates the belly as a cauldron of digestion, with food transforming; beside it, a symbolic embryo silhouette—used not for shock but for inevitability of natural law.
FAQs
It uses a pointed bodily analogy to argue that ordinary rules have exceptions or higher ordering principles in specific contexts (here, the embryo’s protection).
The verse appears within the Śrīhāṭakeśvara-kṣetra Māhātmya narrative setting in Nāgarakhaṇḍa.
None; it is an illustrative argument rather than a ritual instruction.