Skanda Purana — Mahesvara Khanda, Shloka 45
अहं पूर्विकया ते वै न्यषेधंत परस्परम् । अहं पूर्वमहं पूर्वमिति वीरा यथा रणे
ahaṃ pūrvikayā te vai nyaṣedhaṃta parasparam | ahaṃ pūrvamahaṃ pūrvamiti vīrā yathā raṇe
پھر ‘میں پہلے’ کے غرور میں وہ ایک دوسرے کو روکنے لگے—ہر ایک کہتا، ‘میں پہلے بولوں گا، میں ہی پہلے!’ جیسے میدانِ جنگ کے سورما۔
Narrator (unnamed first-person context continuing; likely Sūta’s narration)
Listener: Audience of the Purāṇic narration; immediate listeners are the competing elders
Scene: Twelve elder sages animatedly interrupt each other, each leaning forward with raised hand, like warriors vying for the first strike; the questioner watches, composed.
FAQs
Even the learned can be seized by ego; dharmic learning requires humility so that truth, not ‘I-first,’ prevails.
The verse is part of the same āśrama-region narrative; it does not name a particular tīrtha.
None; it functions as a moral observation about conduct in scholarly and spiritual assemblies.