Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 54
विवासिताः स्वविषयात्तेन सन्मतिदायिनः । धर्माधिकारिणः शूद्रा ब्राह्मणाः करदीकृताः
vivāsitāḥ svaviṣayāttena sanmatidāyinaḥ | dharmādhikāriṇaḥ śūdrā brāhmaṇāḥ karadīkṛtāḥ
اس نے اپنے اپنے علاقوں سے نیک رائے دینے والے دانا مشیروں کو نکال دیا؛ شودروں کو دھرم کے اختیار کا منصف بنا دیا، اور برہمنوں کو خراج گزار رعایا کی حالت میں کر دیا۔
Skanda (deduced: Kāśīkhaṇḍa commonly Skanda → Agastya)
Scene: A dark court scene: a tyrannical ruler on a high throne; wise ministers and counselors being driven out; brāhmaṇas forced to pay tribute; social order visibly inverted, with anxious citizens and ominous sky tones.
FAQs
When rulers overturn dharma and dishonor the wise and the Brāhmaṇas, society falls into disorder and spiritual decline.
The wider narrative belongs to Kāśī-Māhātmya (Kāśī/Varanasi), setting the moral background for the king’s later encounter with the sacred forest of Kāśī.
No direct rite is prescribed in this verse; it establishes adharma as the cause leading toward later sacred intervention in Kāśī.