Skanda Purana — Kashi Khanda, Shloka 5
महाश्मशान इति च कथं ख्यातं शिखिध्वज । एतदिच्छाम्यहं श्रोतुं संदेहं मेऽपनोदय
mahāśmaśāna iti ca kathaṃ khyātaṃ śikhidhvaja | etadicchāmyahaṃ śrotuṃ saṃdehaṃ me'panodaya
Hỡi Śikhidhvaja, vì sao nơi ấy lại nổi danh với tên ‘Mahāśmaśāna’? Ta mong được nghe điều này—xin xua tan nghi hoặc trong lòng ta.
Agastya (deduced; continuing interrogatives)
Tirtha: Mahāśmaśāna (Kāśī)
Type: ghat
Scene: A direct question about why Kāśī is famed as Mahāśmaśāna: the scene juxtaposes funeral fires with serene spiritual radiance, showing pilgrims contemplating mortality while Śiva’s unseen protection pervades.
FAQs
Even the cremation ground is framed as sacred in Kāśī—hinting that death itself, in this kṣetra, is integrated into the path to liberation.
Kāśī as ‘Mahāśmaśāna’—the sanctified cremation-ground dimension of Avimukta.
None; it requests the narrative explanation for the epithet ‘Mahāśmaśāna’.