Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 34
तीर्थस्नानार्थिनी नारी पतिपादोदकं पिबेत् । शंकरादपि विष्णोर्वा पतिरेकोधिकः स्त्रियाः
tīrthasnānārthinī nārī patipādodakaṃ pibet | śaṃkarādapi viṣṇorvā patirekodhikaḥ striyāḥ
Ang babaeng nagnanais ng bunga ng pagligo sa banal na tīrtha ay uminom ng tubig na ipinanghugas sa mga paa ng kanyang asawa. Sapagkat para sa babae, ang asawa—sa dharma ng tahanan—ay higit pang pangunahing sandigan kaysa kay Śaṅkara o maging kay Viṣṇu.
Skanda (deduced for Kāśīkhaṇḍa context)
Tirtha: Kāśī-kṣetra (contextual)
Type: kshetra
Scene: Inside a modest Kāśī household courtyard: a devoted wife offers water at her husband’s feet; a small lota and copper vessel; in the background, a faint silhouette of Viśvanātha temple spire and Gaṅgā ghāṭ steps, suggesting the ‘tīrtha within the home’.
FAQs
It emphasizes gṛhastha-dharma: for a married woman, devoted service to the husband is presented as a principal religious discipline yielding tīrtha-like merit.
No single tīrtha is named in this verse; it uses the idea of tīrtha-bathing as a benchmark for merit within the Kāśī-khaṇḍa discourse.
Drinking the water from washing the husband’s feet (pati-pādodaka) is prescribed as a devotional act associated with tīrtha-like merit.