Skanda Purana — Nagara Khanda, Shloka 26
चतुर्थोऽयं प्रतप्ताख्यो नरकः संप्रकीर्तितः । अत्र ते यातनां भुक्त्वा तथा शुद्धा भवंति च
caturtho'yaṃ prataptākhyo narakaḥ saṃprakīrtitaḥ | atra te yātanāṃ bhuktvā tathā śuddhā bhavaṃti ca
ఈ నాలుగవ నరకం ‘ప్రతాప్త’ (దగ్ధమైనది) అని ప్రకటించబడింది. అక్కడ యాతన అనుభవించి వారు కూడా కర్మక్షయంతో శుద్ధులవుతారు।
Skanda (deduced from Nāgara Khaṇḍa Tīrthamāhātmya narrative style)
Tirtha: Pratāpta
Type: kshetra
Scene: A scorched, ember-filled plain labeled ‘Pratāpta’: figures endure heat-waves and glowing coals; above, a subtle motif of cleansing—cool light or a distant river—suggests eventual purification after karmic exhaustion.
FAQs
Karma is portrayed as precise and exhaustible: suffering functions as a mechanism by which the results of sin are ‘worked off’.
No particular tīrtha is named in this verse; it continues the moral-cosmological teaching embedded in the Māhātmya.
None directly; it describes karmic consequence and subsequent purification.