Skanda Purana — Brahma Khanda, Shloka 18

Devanagari script

क्षात्त्रस्यायं परो धर्मः क्षताद्यत्परिरक्षणम् । तस्मात्कुलोचिते धर्मे नष्टे त्वज्जीवितेन किम्

Transliteration

kṣāttrasyāyaṃ paro dharmaḥ kṣatādyatparirakṣaṇam | tasmātkulocite dharme naṣṭe tvajjīvitena kim

Translation

ဒဏ်ရာရသူများနှင့် ဒုက္ခရောက်နေသူများကို ကာကွယ်စောင့်ရှောက်ခြင်းသည် ခတ္တိယတို့၏ အမြင့်မြတ်ဆုံးသော တာဝန်ဝတ္တရားဖြစ်သည်။ ထို့ကြောင့် သင့်မျိုးနွယ်နှင့် လျော်ညီသော တာဝန် ပျက်ပြားသွားပါက သင့်အသက်သည် အဘယ်တန်ဖိုးရှိသနည်း။

Word by Word

• क्षात्रस्य: of the warrior-class duty
• क्षात्रस्य: Sambandha (Genitive/सम्बन्ध)
• Type: Noun
• Root: kṣātra (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, षष्ठी-विभक्ति, एकवचन

• अयम्: this
• अयम्: Visheshana (Qualifier/विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: idam (सर्वनाम-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, प्रथमा-विभक्ति, एकवचन; सर्वनाम-विशेषण

• परः: highest
• परः: Visheshana (Qualifier/विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: para (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, प्रथमा-विभक्ति, एकवचन; विशेषणम्

• धर्मः: duty; dharma
• धर्मः: Karta (Subject/कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: dharma (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, प्रथमा-विभक्ति, एकवचन

• क्षतात्: from injury; from harm
• क्षतात्: Apadana (Ablative/अपादान)
• Type: Noun
• Root: kṣata (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, पञ्चमी-विभक्ति (अपादान), एकवचन

• यत्: which
• यत्: Karta (Subject/कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: yad (सर्वनाम-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, प्रथमा-विभक्ति, एकवचन; सम्बन्धसूचक (relative)

• परिरक्षणम्: protection; guarding
• परिरक्षणम्: Karta (Predicate nominal/क्रियानाम)
• Type: Verb
• Root: pari-rakṣ (धातु)
• Form: ल्युट्-प्रत्ययान्त कृदन्त (verbal noun/action noun); नपुंसकलिङ्ग, प्रथमा-विभक्ति, एकवचन

• तस्मात्: therefore
• तस्मात्: Sambandha (Discourse connector)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: tad (सर्वनाम-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: तस्मात्-इत्यव्ययप्रयोगः; हेत्वर्थ/तस्मादर्थ (therefore)

• कुलोचिते: proper to the family
• कुलोचिते: Visheshana (Qualifier/विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: kula + ucita (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, सप्तमी-विभक्ति (अधिकरण), एकवचन; तत्पुरुषः (कुलस्य उचितः)

• धर्मे: in duty; in dharma
• धर्मे: Adhikarana (Location/अधिकरण)
• Type: Noun
• Root: dharma (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, सप्तमी-विभक्ति (अधिकरण), एकवचन

• नष्टे: when (it is) lost
• नष्टे: Adhikarana (Locative absolute/सप्तमी)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: naṣṭa (प्रातिपदिक; from naś धातु)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, सप्तमी-विभक्ति (अधिकरण), एकवचन; भूतकालिक-विशेषण (lost)

• त्वत्: your
• त्वत्: Sambandha (Genitive/सम्बन्ध)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: tvad (सर्वनाम-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: षष्ठी-सम्बन्धार्थे पूर्वपद (your)

• जीवितेन: with life; by living
• जीवितेन: Karana (Instrument/करण)
• Type: Noun
• Root: jīvita (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, तृतीया-विभक्ति (करण), एकवचन

• किम्: what (use)
• किम्: Sambandha (Interrogative particle)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: kim (सर्वनाम-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: अव्ययवत् प्रश्नार्थक-निपात (what use?)

Speaker

A woman (queen/consort) articulating kṣatriya-dharma to the king

Skanda Dialogue

Listener: राजा (addressed)

Visual Art Cues

Scene: Didactic tableau: a counselor/queen/elder instructs a king; behind them, a wounded person is being tended—visualizing ‘kṣatādya-parirakṣaṇam’.

FAQs

What is the primary spiritual lesson of this shloka?

For rulers, dharma is protection; without it, life and status lose meaning.

Which specific holy site (Tirtha) is glorified here?

No tīrtha appears; this is a dharma-definition verse.

What ritualistic prescription is mentioned?

None; it prescribes ethical duty rather than a rite.