Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 31
शक्तस्य पंडितस्यापि गुणिनो दानशीलिनः । गंगास्नानविहीनस्य हरे जन्म निरर्थकम्
śaktasya paṃḍitasyāpi guṇino dānaśīlinaḥ | gaṃgāsnānavihīnasya hare janma nirarthakam
اے ہری! اگر کوئی صاحبِ استطاعت، عالم، بااخلاق اور خیرات کرنے والا بھی ہو، مگر گنگا اسنان سے محروم رہے، تو اس کا انسانی جنم اس مقدّس معیار میں بے ثمر ٹھہرتا ہے۔
Skanda (deduced: Kāśīkhaṇḍa commonly Skanda → Agastya)
Tirtha: Gaṅgā-snān (Kāśī stretch implied)
Type: ghat
Listener: Kāśī-focused audience within the chapter’s discourse
Scene: A didactic scene: a learned, charitable householder stands at the Gaṅgā’s edge, realizing the need for snāna; a compassionate divine presence (Hari invoked) witnesses; the river appears as the completing sacrament of life.
FAQs
In tīrtha-māhātmya logic, Gaṅgā-snāna is a decisive purifier that crowns other virtues with salvific efficacy.
Gaṅgā as the preeminent bathing-tīrtha, implicitly in the Kāśī region celebrated in the Kāśīkhaṇḍa.
Gaṅgā-snāna (ritual bathing in the Gaṅgā) is directly praised as essential.