Skanda Purana — Nagara Khanda, Shloka 4
तेषां मंत्रयतामेष निश्चयः समपद्यत । नान्यत्र धर्मविध्वंसाद्देवानां जायते क्षयः
teṣāṃ maṃtrayatāmeṣa niścayaḥ samapadyata | nānyatra dharmavidhvaṃsāddevānāṃ jāyate kṣayaḥ
Ketika mereka bermusyawarah, tercapailah ketetapan yang teguh ini: kemerosotan para dewa tidak timbul dari apa pun selain kehancuran dharma.
Narratorial voice within the Nāgarakhaṇḍa Tīrthamāhātmya (contextual attribution: Purāṇic narrator, commonly Sūta)
Type: kshetra
Listener: Śaunaka and the Naimiṣāraṇya sages (implied)
Scene: A council of dānavas in debate, one figure pointing to a symbolic scale of dharma tipping; in the background, devas’ radiance wanes as dharma is shown as a pillar holding the worlds.
FAQs
The verse teaches that the true cause of cosmic and social decline is the collapse of dharma; protecting dharma is therefore the highest safeguard for divine order and human welfare.
This line functions as a dharma-principle within the Nāgarakhaṇḍa’s Tīrthamāhātmya; the specific tīrtha is not named in this single śloka, but it frames why tīrtha-sevā and dhārmic conduct restore auspiciousness.
No explicit rite (snāna, dāna, japa, vrata) is stated in this verse; it provides the doctrinal basis that dharma—often strengthened through tīrtha practices in the surrounding passage—prevents decline.