Skanda Purana — Mahesvara Khanda, Shloka 54
कात्यायन उवाच । दानस्य तपसो वापि भगवन्किं च दुष्करम् । किं वा महत्फलं प्रेत्य सारस्वत ब्रवीहि तत्
kātyāyana uvāca | dānasya tapaso vāpi bhagavankiṃ ca duṣkaram | kiṃ vā mahatphalaṃ pretya sārasvata bravīhi tat
Disse Kātyāyana: “Ó venerável, entre a caridade (dāna) e a austeridade (tapas), o que é verdadeiramente difícil de praticar? E o que dá o maior fruto após a morte? Ó Sārasvata, diz-me isso.”
Kātyāyana
Listener: Śaunaka and sages (frame)
Scene: Kātyāyana, hands folded, asks Sārasvata seated with a manuscript and water-pot; behind them symbolic scales weigh ‘dāna’ and ‘tapas’; a faint vision of afterlife paths (svarga/mokṣa) appears above.
FAQs
It frames a dharmic inquiry: which practice—charity or austerity—is harder, and which brings the highest posthumous merit.
No specific tīrtha is named in this verse; it functions as a doctrinal question within the Kaumārikākhaṇḍa narrative.
No direct prescription is given; the verse introduces evaluation of dāna (charitable giving) and tapas (austerity).