Skanda Purana — Avanti Khanda, Shloka 77

Devanagari script

पुमांसमभिकाङ्क्षन्त्यो यद्येकः कामयेत्स्त्रियः । मौक्तिकैर्रत्नमाणिक्यैर्वैडूर्यैश्च सुशोभनैः

Transliteration

pumāṃsamabhikāṅkṣantyo yadyekaḥ kāmayetstriyaḥ | mauktikairratnamāṇikyairvaiḍūryaiśca suśobhanaiḥ

Translation

ယောက်ျားတစ်ဦးက မိမိကိုယ်တိုင်လည်း ယောက်ျားကို လိုလားတမ်းတနေသော မိန်းမများကို ဆန္ဒပြုလျှင်၊ ထိုသူမတို့သည် မုက္တိက (ပုလဲ)၊ ရတနာ-မာဏိက (ရူဘီ) နှင့် တောက်ပသော ဝိုင်ဒူရျ (ကြောင်မျက်လုံးကျောက်) တို့ဖြင့် အလွန်လှပစွာ တန်ဆာဆင်ထားကြသည်။

Word by Word

• पुमांसम्: a man
• पुमांसम्: Karma (Object/कर्म)
• Type: Noun
• Root: पुमांस् (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, द्वितीया (कर्म), एकवचन

• अभि-काङ्क्षन्त्यः: desiring/longing for
• अभि-काङ्क्षन्त्यः: Visheshana (Adjectival/विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: अभि-√काङ्क्ष् (धातु) + शतृ (कृदन्त)
• Form: वर्तमानकाले कर्तरि शतृ-प्रत्ययान्त कृदन्त, स्त्रीलिङ्ग, प्रथमा, बहुवचन; विशेषणम् (स्त्रियः) — ‘desiring/longing for’

• यदि: if
• यदि: Sambandha (Condition/सम्बन्ध)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: यदि (अव्यय)
• Form: शर्तार्थक-अव्यय (conditional particle)

• एकः: one (man)
• एकः: Karta (Subject/कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: एक (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, प्रथमा (कर्ता), एकवचन; कर्तृपदम् (कामयेत्)

• कामयेत्: should desire
• कामयेत्: Kriya (Predicate/क्रिया)
• Type: Verb
• Root: √कम् (धातु) (काङ्क्षायाम्) / कामय् (णिच्-धातु)
• Form: विधिलिङ् (optative), परस्मैपदम्, प्रथमपुरुष, एकवचन; सकर्मकः

• स्त्रियः: women
• स्त्रियः: Karma (Object/कर्म)
• Type: Noun
• Root: स्त्री (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: स्त्रीलिङ्ग, द्वितीया (कर्म), बहुवचन

• मौक्तिकैः: with pearls
• मौक्तिकैः: Karana (Instrument/करण)
• Type: Noun
• Root: मौक्तिक (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, तृतीया (करण), बहुवचन

• रत्न-माणिक्यैः: with gems and rubies
• रत्न-माणिक्यैः: Karana (Instrument/करण)
• Type: Noun
• Root: रत्न + माणिक्य (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, तृतीया (करण), बहुवचन; समासः—रत्नाणि च माणिक्यानि च

• वैडूर्यैः: with cat’s-eye gems (vaidūrya)
• वैडूर्यैः: Karana (Instrument/करण)
• Type: Noun
• Root: वैडूर्य (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, तृतीया (करण), बहुवचन

• च: and
• च: Sambandha (Connector/सम्बन्ध)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: च (अव्यय)
• Form: समुच्चयबोधक-निपात

• सु-शोभनैः: very splendid
• सु-शोभनैः: Visheshana (Adjectival/विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: सु + शोभन (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, तृतीया (करण), बहुवचन; विशेषणम् (मौक्तिकैः/रत्नमाणिक्यैः/वैडूर्यैः) — अतिशयेन शोभनैः

Speaker

Sūta (Lomaharṣaṇa) (deduced: Āvantya Khaṇḍa narrative style)

Tirtha Mahatmya

Tirtha: Revā-kṣetra (parīkṣā-sthala within the narrative)

Type: kshetra

Visual Art Cues

Scene: A single man’s desire is contrasted with the maidens’ mutual longing; the maidens gleam with pearls, gems, rubies, and cat’s-eye stones—ornaments sparkling like constellations in the forest light.

FAQs

What is the primary spiritual lesson of this shloka?

Unchecked desire (kāma) is portrayed as easily inflamed by glittering externals; dharma calls for restraint and clarity.

Which specific holy site (Tirtha) is glorified here?

The episode is situated in Revā-kṣetra (Narmadā region), whose narratives are used to teach dharma through striking imagery.

What ritualistic prescription is mentioned?

No explicit vrata, dāna, snāna, or japa is stated here.