Skanda Purana — Nagara Khanda, Shloka 75
वह्निरुवाच । नाहं दोषं द्विजेद्राणां जानन्नपि कथंचन । ब्रवीमि ब्राह्मणा वन्द्या मम सर्वे धरातले
vahniruvāca | nāhaṃ doṣaṃ dvijedrāṇāṃ jānannapi kathaṃcana | bravīmi brāhmaṇā vandyā mama sarve dharātale
อัคนีกล่าวว่า “แม้เราจะรู้ถึงมลทินใด ๆ ก็มิอาจกล่าวโทษต่อทวิชผู้ประเสริฐได้เลย เพราะพราหมณ์ทั้งปวงบนแผ่นดินนี้เป็นผู้ควรแก่การนอบน้อมสำหรับเรา”
Vahni (Agni)
Type: kshetra
Listener: Brāhmaṇas (ritualists)
Scene: Agni, personified, speaks with dignity and restraint, declaring all brāhmaṇas on earth worthy of reverence and refusing to voice defects.
FAQs
It teaches restraint of speech and reverence: one should not publicize faults of the venerable, especially brāhmaṇas, upholding dharma through respectful conduct.
The verse belongs to the Nāgara Khaṇḍa’s Tīrthamāhātmya context centered on a ritual kuṇḍa and its sanctifying waters; the snippet itself does not name the tīrtha explicitly.
No direct ritual is prescribed in this verse; it establishes the ethical ground (brahmin-reverence) within a larger tīrtha/kuṇḍa narrative.