Skanda Purana — Prabhasa Khanda, Shloka 19
भक्ष्यन्ते केनचिद्रात्रौ मृत्युमेव प्रयान्ति च । नष्टधर्मक्रियाः सर्वे भूतले प्रपितामह
bhakṣyante kenacidrātrau mṛtyumeva prayānti ca | naṣṭadharmakriyāḥ sarve bhūtale prapitāmaha
“Ban đêm, chúng con bị một kẻ nào đó không rõ ăn nuốt, và chỉ gặp tử vong. Mọi nghi lễ dharma trên mặt đất đều đã tiêu vong, bạch Đấng Tổ Phụ Tối Thượng!”
Tāpasas and jñāna-śīlins addressing Brahmā (reported speech)
Tirtha: Prabhāsa-kṣetra
Type: kshetra
Listener: Ṛṣis (frame assumed)
Scene: Terrified sages describe an unseen nocturnal eater; the earth below is shown with extinguished sacrificial fires, silent altars, and abandoned ritual spaces; they address Brahmā as Pitāmaha.
FAQs
Dharma is sustained by living communities of practice; when practitioners are destroyed, society urgently needs divine and righteous protection.
The crisis is narrated within the Prabhāsa-kṣetra framework, where dharma’s restoration becomes part of the site’s sacred narrative.
No prescription; the verse laments the collapse of dharma-kriyā due to nightly violence.