Skanda Purana — Nagara Khanda, Shloka 45
सुरां पीत्वा द्विजं हत्वा द्विजानां निष्कृतिः स्मृता । धेनुविक्रयकर्तॄणां प्रायश्चित्तं न विद्यते
surāṃ pītvā dvijaṃ hatvā dvijānāṃ niṣkṛtiḥ smṛtā | dhenuvikrayakartṝṇāṃ prāyaścittaṃ na vidyate
“برہمنوں کے لیے شراب پینے اور برہمن کے قتل تک کا بھی کفّارہ بتایا گیا ہے؛ مگر جو لوگ گائے بیچنے میں لگتے ہیں، ان کے لیے کوئی توبہ و کفّارہ نہیں ملتا۔”
Jamadagni (continued)
Type: kshetra
Listener: King (and the māhātmya audience)
Scene: A didactic, almost judicial scene: Jamadagni pronounces a grave rule; behind him symbolic panels show surā-pāna and brahma-hatyā with ‘expiation possible’, while cow-sale is marked with a stark ‘no atonement’ signifier—conveying hierarchy.
FAQs
Undermining the sacred support of dharma and yajña (the cow) is portrayed as a uniquely destructive transgression.
No specific tīrtha is named in this verse; it functions as a dharmic warning within the tīrtha-narrative.
It discusses prāyaścitta in principle, emphasizing that cow-selling is treated as beyond ordinary expiation in this teaching.