Skanda Purana — Prabhasa Khanda, Shloka 9
तृषार्त्तश्च क्षुधाविष्टो रुदते च मुहुर्मुहुः । दृष्टा चेत्कथ्यतां सुभ्रूर्विनाऽयं तां मरिष्यति
tṛṣārttaśca kṣudhāviṣṭo rudate ca muhurmuhuḥ | dṛṣṭā cetkathyatāṃ subhrūrvinā'yaṃ tāṃ mariṣyati
وہ پیاس سے بے تاب اور بھوک سے مغلوب ہے، اور بار بار روتا رہتا ہے۔ اے خوبرو ابرو والی، اگر تم نے اسے دیکھا ہو تو بتا دو—اس کے بغیر یہ مر جائے گا۔
The husband of Maṇikarṇikā (narrative character; direct speech)
Tirtha: Arbuda-niḥjhara/jalāśaya (as implied in the episode)
Type: kund
Listener: Śaunaka and the Naimiṣāraṇya sages (typical frame) / within episode addressed to a King (rājan appears later)
Scene: A desperate, emaciated man, parched and hungry, repeatedly weeping and pleading with a woman of gentle brow to reveal the whereabouts of his beloved; the landscape hints at a sacred water-source nearby.
FAQs
Dharma is inseparable from compassion: the narrative foregrounds the duty to protect life, even as the tīrtha’s sacred power is about to be revealed.
The Maṇikarṇikā tīrtha context continues; the dialogue unfolds at the sacred waters associated with the legend.
No explicit rite; the verse intensifies the narrative stakes that lead to the tīrtha-māhātmya’s demonstration.