Skanda Purana — Avanti Khanda, Shloka 1
मार्कण्डेय उवाच । नष्टे लोके पुनश्चान्ये सलिलेन समावृते । महार्णवस्य मध्यस्थो बाहुभ्यामतरं जलम्
mārkaṇḍeya uvāca | naṣṭe loke punaścānye salilena samāvṛte | mahārṇavasya madhyastho bāhubhyāmataraṃ jalam
مارکنڈےیہ نے کہا: جب دنیا فنا ہو گئی اور پھر سب کچھ پانی سے ڈھک گیا، تو میں بحرِ عظیم کے بیچ تھا، اپنے بازوؤں سے سیلابی پانی چیرتا ہوا تیر رہا تھا۔
Mārkaṇḍeya
Tirtha: Mahārṇava (cosmic ocean) as saṃsāra-metaphor
Type: kshetra
Listener: Nṛpottama (best of kings)
Scene: Mārkaṇḍeya alone in the middle of the boundless cosmic ocean after the world’s destruction, swimming with his arms through endless waters under a dim, dissolution sky.
FAQs
The verse sets a Purāṇic frame of pralaya (dissolution), highlighting human frailty and the need for divine refuge amid cosmic upheaval.
No specific tīrtha is named; the scene is cosmic (the great ocean during pralaya), serving as a theological backdrop rather than a geographic praise.
None explicitly; it is narrative description preparing for a revelation.