Prasanth P. and Sreeja Krishnan
Abstract
The Skanda Purana, one of the eighteen Maha puranas of Hindu tradition, functions both as a mythological corpus and as a sophisticated sacred geography that codifies protection for forest ecosystems. Through its elaboration of Tirthavanani - pilgrimage groves consecrated to deities, the text inscribes a theology of nature conservation that bridges cosmological order (dharma) with ecological integrity. Thus, the paper is an attempt to examine how the Skanda Puranaâs spatial sanctification of forests correlates with contemporary biodiversity hotspots, particularly the Western Ghats and Himalayan regions. The ritual frameworks established mechanisms for long-term species preservation that persist in surviving sacred groves such as the devara kâdu of Karnataka. It is evident that the khandas and their geographic specificity demonstrate that sacred geography was not merely symbolic, but functioned as an operative conservation technology embedded in community practice, ritual obligation and theological principle.