Markandeyapurana 22
English (machine translation) 22
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Contents
22.1
Then, after much time had passed, the king again spoke to his son: / "Go swiftly, wander the earth for the protection of the brahmins.
22.2
Mounting this horse morning after morning, day after day, / the freedom from affliction of the foremost twice-born must always be ensured.
22.3
There are hundreds of misbehaved Dānavas born of wicked wombs; / act in such a way that there is no affliction to the sages from them."
22.4
Then, thus instructed by his father, the king's son acted accordingly. / Having traversed the entire earth, he bowed at his father's feet
22.5
day after day upon arriving in the forenoon, the prince; / and then he took delight with that slender-waisted woman for the rest of the day.
22.6
Now, wandering one day on the bank of the Yamunā, he saw / Tālaketu, the younger brother of Pātālaketu, who had established a hermitage.
22.7
That Dānava, a master of illusion, had assumed the form of a sage. / Remembering his former enmity, he said to that prince:
22.8
"O prince, I tell you: do that if you wish. / And your breaking of a request should not be done, O true to your promise!
22.9
I wish to sacrifice with a sacrifice for dharma, and rites are to be performed; / piles of wood must be made there, for I have no sacrificial fee.
22.10
Therefore, O hero, give me your own ornament that clings to your neck / for the sake of gold, and protect this hermitage of mine,
22.11
while in the midst of the waters, with Vedic Varuṇa mantras / which cause the flourishing of subjects, to the god Varuṇa, the lord of aquatic creatures,
22.12
having praised him, I return with haste." To him who spoke thus, / having bowed, he then gave that neck ornament.
22.13
He said: "May your honor go with an untroubled mind. / I shall remain right here near your hermitage
22.14
by your command, O illustrious one, until your return. / No one here will cause you trouble while I am present. / Confident and without haste, O brahmin, accomplish what is in your mind."
22.14.p1
The two sons said:
22.15
Having been spoken to thus by him, he plunged into the river's water, / and the prince guarded that hermitage created by illusion.
22.16
Then, having gone from that body of water, Tālaketu / said this in the presence of Madālasā and others:
22.17
Tālaketu said: / "That heroic Kuvalayāśva, while providing protection to ascetics / near my hermitage from some wicked Daitya,
22.18
fighting to the best of his ability, slaying the enemies of brahmins in battle, / was pierced in the chest with a spear by that wicked one resorting to illusion.
22.19
While dying, this neck ornament was given by him to me, / and he was consigned to union with fire in the forest by Śūdra ascetics.
22.20
Uttering distressed neighing sounds, terrified, with eyes full of tears, / that horse was carried off by that very same evil-minded Dānava.
22.21
This was seen by me, a cruel performer of bad deeds. / Whatever is to be done immediately after this, let that be done without delay.
22.22
And let this neck ornament be taken as comfort for your heart, / for we ascetics have no need for gold."
22.22.p1
The two sons said:
22.23
Having spoken thus and cast it on the ground, he departed as he had come. / Then those people, stricken with grief and afflicted by swoon, collapsed.
22.24
Regaining consciousness in that instant, all those women of the king, / the king's wives, and the king lamented, exceedingly sorrowful.
22.25
Madālasā, however, having seen his neck ornament / and having heard that her husband was slain, swiftly abandoned her beloved life-breaths.
22.26
Then there was such a great outcry in the mansions of the citizens / as had occurred in the very house of that king.
22.27
The king, seeing that Madālasā had died without her husband, / having reflected with a composed mind, answered all the people:
22.28
"I see no reason for you or for myself to weep, / considering the impermanence of all relationships whatsoever.
22.29
Shall I grieve for my son, or shall I grieve for my daughter-in-law? / Reflecting that both have accomplished their duty, I consider them both beyond grief.
22.30
Devoted to protecting brahmins in accordance with my instruction and my word, / how should my son, having met death, be lamented by the wise?
22.31
Since this body must inevitably perish, if it was given up / by my son for the sake of twice-born men, surely that brings great fortune.
22.32
And she, born of a noble family, thus devoted to her husband— / how indeed should she be mourned? For women have no other deity than their husband.
22.33
For us, for our kinsmen, and for other compassionate people, / she would indeed be pitiable if she were separated from her husband.
22.34
She, however, having heard of her husband's death, that very moment, spirited lady, / followed after her husband; therefore she should not be mourned by the wise.
22.35
Those who live separated are to be pitied, not those who die together; / and separation from her husband was not experienced by this grateful woman.
22.36
He is the giver of all happiness both in this world and in the next; / what woman would regard her husband as a mere mortal in both worlds?
22.37
Neither he is to be pitied, nor she, nor I, nor his mother: / by him giving up his life for the sake of a brahmin, we have all been saved.
22.38
That high-minded son of mine has paid his debt to brahmins, to my dharma, / and to my body, half of which had been enjoyed [in him], by renouncing his body.
22.39
His mother's chastity, the purity of my lineage, and his own valor / he did not forsake while abandoning his life in battle, nor did he abandon the protection of twice-born men.
22.39.p1
The two sons said:
22.40
Then the mother of Kuvalayāśva, after her husband had spoken, / having heard of such a death of her son and looking at her husband, said:
22.41
The mother said:
Neither my mother nor my sister ever felt such joy, O king, / as I have felt upon hearing that my son was slain in rescuing a sage.
22.42
Those whose kinsmen weep while they, sighing in deep agony, / die afflicted by disease—their mother has borne children in vain.
22.43
Those who fight fearlessly in battle to protect cows and brahmins, / and perish mangled by weapons—they alone are true men on earth.
22.44
By him who does not turn his back upon supplicants, on circles of friends, or on enemies, / the father becomes a father of a true son, and the mother becomes a mother of a hero.
22.45
I think the travail of a woman's pregnancy attains fruit / when her son is either victorious over enemies or slain in battle.
22.45.p1
The two sons said:
22.46
Then the king had funeral rites performed for his son's wife, / and going outside, he bathed and offered water for his son.
22.47
And Tālaketu, also emerging from the waters of the Yamunā, / spoke these sweet words with affection to the prince:
22.48
"Go, prince! You have accomplished my purpose, / and the deed long desired has been accomplished while you stood here unshaken.
22.49
The sacrificial business of Varuṇa, the great-souled lord of the waters, / has all been achieved by me, which was my desire."
22.50
Bowing to him, the prince set out for his father's city, / mounting that very horse whose speed equaled the wind and Suparṇa.
22.50.p1
Thus ends the twenty-second chapter, entitled 'The Loss of Madālasā', in the story of Kuvalayāśva in the glorious Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa.
22.50.p2
Chapter Twenty-Three
22.50.p3
The two sons said:
Translations (1)
- The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa — Frederick Eden Pargiter 1888, English
Linked texts (1)
- Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit