Skanda Purana — Prabhasa Khanda, Shloka 56

Devanagari script

निद्रा तंद्रा तथाऽलस्यं पैशुन्यमिति ते दश । एते रक्षंति सततं सोमेशं तीर्थनायकम्

Transliteration

nidrā taṃdrā tathā'lasyaṃ paiśunyamiti te daśa | ete rakṣaṃti satataṃ someśaṃ tīrthanāyakam

Translation

အိပ်စက်ခြင်း (နိဒ္ရာ)၊ မူးဝေငိုက်မြိုက်ခြင်း (တန္ဒ္ရာ)၊ ပျင်းရိခြင်း (အာလသျံ) နှင့် အပြစ်တင်ပြောဆိုခြင်း (ပိုင်ရှုနျယ) — ဤတို့ဖြင့် ဆယ်ပါး ပြည့်စုံ၏။ ဤတို့သည် တီရ္ထနာယက ဖြစ်သော သောမေရှ (Someśa) ကို အမြဲတမ်း ‘စောင့်ကာ’ နေကြ၏။

Word by Word

• निद्रा: sleep
• निद्रा: Karta (Subject/कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: निद्रा (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: स्त्रीलिङ्गे, प्रथमा-विभक्तिः (1st/Nominative), एकवचनम्

• तंद्रा: drowsiness
• तंद्रा: Karta (Subject/कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: तन्द्रा (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: स्त्रीलिङ्गे, प्रथमा-विभक्तिः (1st/Nominative), एकवचनम्

• तथा: and likewise
• तथा: Sambandha (Connector/सम्बन्ध)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: तथा (अव्यय)
• Form: समुच्चय/प्रकारवाचक-अव्ययम् (adverb: likewise/also)

• आलस्यम्: laziness
• आलस्यम्: Karta (Subject/कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: आलस्य (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्गे, प्रथमा-विभक्तिः (1st/Nominative), एकवचनम्

• पैशुन्यम्: slander/backbiting
• पैशुन्यम्: Karta (Subject/कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: पैशुन्य (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्गे, प्रथमा-विभक्तिः (1st/Nominative), एकवचनम्

• इति: thus
• इति: Sambandha (Marker/सम्बन्ध)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: इति (अव्यय)
• Form: उद्धरण/समाप्त्यर्थक-अव्ययम् (quotative particle: thus)

• ते: those
• ते: Karta (Subject/कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: तद् (सर्वनाम-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्गे, प्रथमा-विभक्तिः (1st/Nominative), बहुवचनम्; संकेतार्थः (those)

• दश: ten
• दश: Visheshana (Qualifier/विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: दशन् (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: (सामान्यतः) प्रथमा-विभक्तिः (1st/Nominative), बहुवचनार्थे; संख्यावाचकः (ten)

• एते: these
• एते: Karta (Subject/कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: एतद् (सर्वनाम-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्गे, प्रथमा-विभक्तिः (1st/Nominative), बहुवचनम्

• रक्षन्ति: protect/guard
• रक्षन्ति: Kriya (Action/क्रिया)
• Type: Verb
• Root: रक्ष् (धातु)
• Form: लट् (Present), प्रथमपुरुषः (3rd person), बहुवचनम्; परस्मैपदम्

• सततम्: constantly
• सततम्: Kriya-visheshana (Adverbial/क्रियाविशेषण)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: सतत (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: क्रियाविशेषणरूपेण द्वितीया-एकवचन-प्रयोगः (adverbial accusative: always/constantly)

• सोमेशम्: Someśa (Lord of Soma)
• सोमेशम्: Karma (Object/कर्म)
• Type: Noun
• Root: सोम-ईश (प्रातिपदिक); सोम (प्रातिपदिक) + ईश (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्गे, द्वितीया-विभक्तिः (2nd/Accusative), एकवचनम्; ‘सोमस्य ईशः’

• तीर्थनायकम्: leader of the sacred ford (tīrtha)
• तीर्थनायकम्: Karma (Object/कर्म)
• Type: Noun
• Root: तीर्थ-नायक (प्रातिपदिक); तीर्थ (प्रातिपदिक) + नायक (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्गे, द्वितीया-विभक्तिः (2nd/Accusative), एकवचनम्; ‘तीर्थस्य नायकः’

Speaker

Śiva (deduced)

Tirtha Mahatmya

Tirtha: Someśa (tīrtha-nāyaka) at Prabhāsa

Type: temple

Visual Art Cues

Scene: At the gateway of Someśa’s shrine stand ten symbolic sentinels—Sleep, Drowsiness, Sloth, Slander, and the earlier vices—subtly restraining an inattentive pilgrim, while a disciplined devotee passes with lamp and mantra.

Characters & Entities

• Someśa/Someśvara
• Tīrtha (Prabhāsa)

FAQs

What is the primary spiritual lesson of this shloka?

Inner dullness and harmful speech become ‘gatekeepers’ that prevent a seeker from approaching the holy.

Which specific holy site (Tirtha) is glorified here?

Prabhāsa-tīrtha under the lordship of Someśvara (Someśa).

What ritualistic prescription is mentioned?

No explicit rite; the implied instruction is to overcome these hindrances to reach and worship at the tīrtha.