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Markandeyapurana 63

English (machine translation) 63

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63.1

Mārkaṇḍeya said: / Then he sported with her in that way on the mountain ridges, / in charming lakes and captivating blossomed forests,

63.2

and in delightful caves, on riverbanks, / and in other delightful places, rejoicing, O twice-born.

63.3

The form he possessed when entered by the fire through its radiance, / that she thought of at the time of enjoyment, with her eyes closed.

63.4

Then, in time, she conceived a child, O best of sages, / from the seed of the gandharva and from thinking of the form of the twice-born.

63.5

Then, having comforted the pregnant Varūthinī, / he who bore the form of the brahmin departed, dismissed affectionately by her.

63.6

A radiant boy was born, blazing like fire, / illuminating all the quarters with his own luster, like the sun.

63.7

Because the boy shone with his own luster like the sun, / he became known by the very name Svarocis.

63.8

And that noble one grew day by day with age / and with a multitude of virtues, like the young moon with its digits.

63.9

He grasped the science of archery and the Vedas in due order, / and the sciences as well, the noble one, when he reached youth.

63.10

Once, wandering on Mount Mandara, acting gracefully, / he then saw a maiden on a mountain plateau, terrified with fear.

63.11

Seeing him, she then spoke the words: 'Save me!' / 'Do not fear,' he said to her whose eyes were agitated with fear.

63.12

When the heroic words 'What is this?' were spoken by that great-souled one, / she then spoke, her words trembling with sobbing gasps.

63.12.p1

The maiden said:

63.13

'I am the daughter of the vidyādhara named Indīvara, / born by the name Manoramā to the daughter of Marudhanvan.

63.14

My friend is Vibhāvarī, born of the vidyādhara Mandāra, / and another is Kalāvatī, daughter of the sage Pāra.

63.15

Together with them, I went to the excellent slope of Kailāsa; / there was seen a certain sage, his form extremely emaciated by asceticism.

63.16

His throat emaciated with hunger, lacking lustre, his eyeballs deep-sunken, / he was laughed at by me; enraged, he then cursed me:

63.17

“In a voice faint and weak, his sprout-like lower lip trembling slightly, [he said:] / ‘Because you have laughed at me, uncultured, wicked ascetic girl,

63.18

therefore a rākṣasa shall overpower you before long!’ / When the curse was given, that sage was rebuked by my two female friends:

63.19

‘Fie on your brahminhood! Through lack of forbearance all your asceticism has been stolen away. / You have been overwhelmed by bursts of anger, not thoroughly emaciated by asceticism.

63.20

Forbearance is indeed the basis of brahminhood; restraint of anger is asceticism.’ / Having heard this, he of boundless splendour gave a curse to them as well:

63.21

‘One shall have leprosy on her limbs, and the other consumption.’ / Instantly, just as he had spoken, it happened to both of them.

63.22

And to me also, a huge rākṣasa has approached following my tracks. / Do you not hear the loud roar of him roaring not far away?

63.23

Today is the third day that he has not left my back. / I know the heart of the entire collection of divine weapons; today to you

63.24

I give it. Protect me, noble-minded one, from this rākṣasa! / In the beginning Rudra himself, wielder of the Pināka, gave it to Svāyambhuva;

63.25

Svāyambhuva gave it to Vasiṣṭha, best of perfected beings; / he too gave it to Citrāyudha, the father of my mother.

63.26

He too, as a father-in-law, gave it himself as a wedding gift to my father. / And I, O hero, when a girl, was taught it by my father.

63.27

It is the heart of all divine weapons, destroying every enemy; / accept this immediately, the ultimate refuge of all divine weapons.

63.28

Therefore slay this wicked-minded rākṣasa who has arrived.”

63.29

Mārkaṇḍeya said:
When he said, “So be it,” she then touched water and gave him that / secret heart of the divine weapons along with the secret method of recalling [them].

63.30

Meanwhile, that rākṣasa of terrifying form / arrived in haste, roaring with a loud bellow.

63.31

He saw him speaking: “Overcome by me, why do you seek protection? Come to me quickly! / Shall I eat [you] after a delay?”

63.32

Seeing him arrive, Svarocis thought: / “Let the word of that great sage prove true: let him seize her!”

63.33

Approaching her in haste, that rākṣasa seized her, / the slender-waisted one, weeping piteously, “Save [me], save [me]!”

63.34

Then Svarocis, enraged, directed a fierce and exceedingly terrible divine weapon / into his gaze, and looked at that rākṣasa with unblinking eyes.

63.35

Overcome then, the night-roamer let her go and said: / “Be gracious! Let the divine weapon be pacified, and listen!

63.36

I have been liberated by you from an exceedingly terrible curse, O one of great splendour, / given by the wise and exceedingly severe Brahmamitra.

63.37

There is no other benefactor greater than you for me, fortunate one, / by whom I have been released from a great curse of extreme suffering.”

63.38

Svarocis said:
“For what reason were you cursed by the sage Brahmamitra, the great-souled one, / and what kind of curse was given in the past?”

63.39

The rākṣasa said:
“Brahmamitra had studied the eightfold Āyurveda, / a twice-born of the Atharvaveda who had mastered thirteen treatises.

63.40

And I, known by the name of Indīvara, was the father of this girl, / a son of Nalanābha, the sword-bearing lord of vidyādharas.

63.41

And the sage Brahmamitra was previously begged by me: / ‘O blessed one, you should give me the complete Āyurveda.’

63.42

When, however, O hero, though I bowed with modesty again and again, / he did not give the science of Āyurveda to me when begged,

63.43

as he was imparting it to his disciples, I, remaining invisible, / seized that science of Āyurveda then, O sinless one.

63.44

When the science had been grasped inwardly in eight months, / because of my extreme delight there arose excessive laughter again and again.

63.45

Recognising me from the laughter, the sage, filled with wrath, / with trembling neck, spoke these harsh words to me:

63.46

‘Because, like a rākṣasa, remaining unseen, you, wicked-minded one, / have stolen the science, and have laughed in contempt of me,

63.47

therefore you, evildoer, ruined by my curse, / will become a dreadful rākṣasa in seven nights, there is no doubt.’

63.48

When this was said, pacified by prostrations and other services of respect, / that brahmin, his mind having softened instantly, spoke to me again:

63.49

‘What has been spoken by me must inevitably happen, O gandharva; it cannot be otherwise. / But after becoming a rākṣasa, you will regain your own form.

63.50

When, having lost your memory and enraged, wishing to devour your own offspring, / you attain the state of a night-roamer, you shall be scorched by the fire of a divine weapon.

63.51

Gaining your consciousness once again, you will regain your own form, / and likewise your own dwelling in the realm called Gandharva.’

63.52

Such as I am, fortunate one, I have been liberated by you from this great danger, / from the state of a night-roamer, O hero! Therefore grant my request:

63.53

I give you this daughter of mine as a wife; accept her. / And the entire eight-limbed Āyurveda that was obtained by me / from the sage, accept that, O noble-minded one!”

63.54

Mārkaṇḍeya said:
Having spoken thus, he bestowed the science; and shining in celestial garments, / wearing garlands and ornaments, he resumed his former celestial form.

63.55

Then, having given the science, he undertook to give the maiden. / She then spoke to that father restored to his own form:

63.56

“Father, great love has arisen in me towards this great-souled one / just upon seeing him, and especially as my benefactor.

63.57

However, that female friend of mine and the other are afflicted with misery on my account; / therefore I do not wish to enjoy pleasures together with him.

63.58

Such cruelty cannot be done even by men; / how could a woman like me, charming by nature, do it?

63.59

As those two maidens are afflicted with misery on my account, father, / so shall I remain in their misery, scorched by the fire of grief for them.”

63.60

Svarocis said:
“By the grace of the Āyurveda I shall make them renewed, / those two friends of yours; cast away your great sorrow, O slender-waisted one.”

63.61

Mārkaṇḍeya said:
Then, according to the prescribed rites, on that mountain Svarocis married that fair-eyed maiden / given by her father himself.

63.62

Having given that maiden and having comforted the passionate woman, / the gandharva went to his own city by celestial flight.

63.63

And he, accompanied by the slender maiden, then went to the fair garden / where the pair of maidens was, afflicted with diseases born of that curse.

63.64

Then Svarocis, the unconquered, who knew reality, / made their two bodies free of disease with disease-destroying herbs and essences.

63.65

Then the two maidens, exquisitely beautiful and freed from disease, / illuminated that mountain by illuminating the quarters of the sky with their own radiance.

63.65.p1

Thus ends the sixty-third chapter in the Svārociṣa Manvantara in the glorious Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa.

63.65.p2

Chapter sixty-four.

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