Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 1
स्कंद उवाच । वाराणसीति प्रथितं यथा चानंदकाननम् । तथा च कथयामीह देवदेवेनभाषितम्
skaṃda uvāca | vārāṇasīti prathitaṃ yathā cānaṃdakānanam | tathā ca kathayāmīha devadevenabhāṣitam
اسکند نے کہا: میں یہاں اسی طرح بیان کروں گا کہ اسے ‘وارانسی’ اور ‘آنند کانن’ کیوں کہا جاتا ہے، جیسا کہ یہ مشہور ہے—اور جیسا کہ دیووں کے دیو نے فرمایا تھا۔
Skanda
Tirtha: Vārāṇasī / Ānandakānana (Kāśī)
Type: kshetra
Listener: Sage-assembly (frame tradition; often Umā as immediate addressee in Kāśī-khaṇḍa dialogues)
Scene: Skanda begins a new exposition: a panoramic Kāśī—Gaṅgā curve, ghāṭas, temples—overlaid with a subtle ‘forest of bliss’ vision (Ānandakānana) as if the city is simultaneously urban and divine woodland; the words ‘Vārāṇasī’ and ‘Ānandakānana’ appear as sacred calligraphy in the air.
FAQs
Kāśī’s holiness is grounded in divine revelation; its very names encode its sacred identity and blissful, liberating nature.
Vārāṇasī/Kāśī, especially as Ānandakānana and within the Avimukta sacred field.
None; the verse introduces an explanatory māhātmya about Kāśī’s sacred names.