Markandeyapurana 8
English (machine translation) 8
- Language
- English
Contents
8.1
Jaimini said: / "You have explained this in due order according to my questions; / I have great curiosity regarding the story of Hariścandra.
8.2
Ah, what unsurpassed hardship was endured by that great soul! / Did he attain corresponding happiness, O best of the twice-born?"
8.3
The birds said: / Hearing Viśvāmitra's words, the king slowly departed, / followed by his wife Śaivyā, sorrowful, with her child-son.
8.4
That protector of the earth went to the divine city of Vārāṇasī, / thinking, 'This is not to be enjoyed by humans; it is the domain of the Trident-bearer.'
8.5
Afflicted by grief, he walked on foot with his devoted wife; / at the entrance to the city, he saw Viśvāmitra present.
8.6
Seeing that he had arrived, he bowed low with humility, / and making an añjali, Hariścandra said to the great sage:
8.7
"Here is my life, this son, and this wife of mine, O sage! / Whatever serves your purpose, take that quickly as the supreme guest-offering.
8.8
Or whatever other duty we must perform, deign to command that."
8.9
Viśvāmitra said:
“The month is complete, royal sage; let my sacrificial fee be given,
for the sake of the Rājasūya sacrifice, if your own word is remembered.”
8.10
Hariścandra said:
“O brahmin, rich in unfading penance, the month is completed only today.
Half of this day remains; wait for that, [and do] not [be] impatient.”
8.11
Viśvāmitra said:
“So be it, great king! I will return again.
I will place a curse upon you if you do not pay today.”
8.12
The birds said:
Having spoken thus, the brahmin departed, and the king then thought:
“How shall I give him the sacrificial fee that was promised?
8.13
From where [can I find] prosperous friends? From where [can come] wealth for me now?
Accepting gifts is forbidden for me; how should I not go down [to hell]?
8.14
Shall I abandon my life-breaths? To what direction shall I, destitute, go?
If I meet with destruction without giving what was promised,
8.15
I, a worm who seized a brahmin's property, sinful, shall become the lowest of the low.
Or else I shall enter servitude; self-sale is truly better.”
8.16
The birds said:
To the king, agitated, miserable, brooding with face turned downward,
his wife then spoke with a voice choked with tears:
8.17
“Abandon your anxiety, great king; protect your own truth.
A man cast out from truth is to be avoided like a cremation ground.
8.18
They proclaim no higher dharma for a man, o tiger among men,
than the preservation of one's own truth.
8.19
The agnihotra, study [of the Vedas], or gifts and all other rituals
become fruitless for him whose word is baseless.
8.20
Truth is proclaimed supreme in the dharmaśāstras of the wise
for delivering [beings]; likewise falsehood brings down undisciplined souls.
8.21
Having performed seven horse sacrifices and a Rājasūya, a king
named Kṛti fell from heaven through a single untrue word.
8.22
O king, an offspring has been born to me!” Having said this, she wept.
The lord of the earth spoke this to her whose eye-corners were flooded with tears:
8.23
Hariścandra said:
“Release your grief, auspicious one; this child remains.
Say whatever you desire to speak, o woman with an elephant's gait!”
8.24
The wife said:
“O king, an offspring has been born to me; for the virtuous, wives bear fruit in sons.
Having given me away, with that wealth give the sacrificial fee to the brahmin.”
8.25
The birds said:
Upon hearing this speech, the lord of the earth fell into a faint.
And having regained consciousness, exceedingly grieved, he lamented:
8.26
“This is great sorrow, auspicious one, that you speak thus to me.
Have the smiling conversations with me, a sinner, been forgotten by you?
8.27
Alas, alas! How could this be spoken by you, o woman of pure smiles?
This thing is unspeakable; how can I carry it out?”
8.28
Having spoken thus, that best of men, repeatedly crying “Shame, shame!”
fell down upon the earth’s surface, overwhelmed by a swoon.
8.29
Seeing King Hariścandra lying upon the ground,
the queen, profoundly sorrowful, spoke this piteously:
8.30
The wife said:
“Alas, great king! Whose malevolent thought has befallen [us],
that you, accustomed to coverlets of deer-fur, have fallen on the earth?
8.31
He by whom wealth of hundreds of millions of cows was bestowed on brahmins—
that same lord of the earth, my husband, sleeps upon the ground!
8.32
Alas, what misery! O lord, what did this king do to you,
that he, equal to Indra and Upendra, has been brought to a state of deep sleep?”
8.33
Having spoken thus, she of beautiful hips also fell down fainting,
oppressed by the unbearable, great burden of her husband's sorrow.
8.34
Seeing his parents thus fallen on the ground, helpless,
the child, seized by extreme hunger, spoke this speech, greatly distressed:
8.35
“Father, father, give food! Mother, mother, give a meal!
My hunger has grown powerful, and the tip of my tongue is dry.”
8.36
The birds said:
In that interval, Viśvāmitra of great penance arrived,
and seeing Hariścandra fallen upon the ground, unconscious,
8.37
he sprinkled the king with water and said this:
“Arise, arise, o ruler of kings! Give that promised sacrificial fee!
8.38
For one who bears a debt, suffering increases day by day.”
Being refreshed then with water cold as snow,
8.39
and regaining consciousness, the king, seeing Viśvāmitra,
fell once again into a faint; and that sage went into anger.
8.40
Having revived the king, that best of the twice-born spoke these words:
“Let that sacrificial fee of mine be given, if you have regard for dharma.
8.41
By truth the sun shines; on truth rests the earth;
and truth is declared to be the highest dharma; heaven is established on truth.
8.42
A thousand horse sacrifices and truth were placed upon a scale;
truth alone outweighs a thousand horse sacrifices.
8.43
Or rather, what is the purpose of this gentle conciliation spoken by me
to an un-noble, evil-minded, cruel speaker of falsehood?
8.44
Since this true state of things has power over you, the king, listen to this:
If you, o king, do not give me my sacrificial fee today,
8.45
then when the sun has gone to the setting mountain, I will surely curse you.”
Having spoken thus, the brahmin departed, and the king was afflicted with fear.
8.46
At his wits' end, degraded, destitute, tormented by the cruel creditor,
his wife spoke to him again: “Let my word be carried out,
8.47
lest, scorched by the fire of his curse, you meet with death.”
Being thus urged again and again by his wife, the king
8.49
said: “Auspicious one, pitiless as I am, I shall sell you.
What cannot be done even by cruel men, that I shall do,
if my voice is able to speak such an exceedingly harsh word.”
Having spoken thus to his wife, going to the city, tormented,
his throat and eyes covered with tears, he then spoke these words:
8.49.p1
The king said:
8.50
“O citizens, all of you, listen to my word!
Why do you ask me, ‘Who are you?’ O, I am a cruel non-human,
8.51
or a most callous rākṣasa, or even more sinful than that,
who, having come to sell my beloved, do not abandon my life-breaths!
8.52
If any of you has need of a maidservant who is dearer than my life,
let him speak with haste, as long as I can hold myself together.”
8.53
The birds said:
Then an aged twice-born man, having arrived, said to the ruler of men:
“Surrender the maidservant to me; I am a buyer, a payer of the price.”
8.54
"I have abundant wealth, and my beloved [wife] is delicate; / she is unable to perform household work, so give [her] to me.
8.55
Take this wealth suitable to the capability, age, beauty, / and good character of your woman, and surrender the weak woman to me."
8.56
When spoken to thus by the brahmin, the heart of King Hariścandra / tore with grief, and he said nothing at all to him.
8.57
Then that brahmin bound the wealth firmly in the end of the king's bark garment, / and seizing the king's wife by the hair, dragged her away.
8.58
Rohitāśva also wept upon seeing his mother being dragged away— / a child wearing side-locks, pulling at her garment with his hand.
8.59
The king's wife said: / "Release me, noble sir, release me just long enough that I may see the child; / it will be difficult, father, to see him again.
8.60
Look, come, child, at me, your mother, reduced to slavery in this manner; / do not touch me, prince! I am now untouchable for you."
8.61
Then that child, suddenly seeing his mother being dragged away, / ran toward her crying, "Mother!" his eyes clouded with tears.
8.62
As he came, the brahmin struck the boy with his foot in anger; / nevertheless, saying, "Mother!" he did not let go of his mother at all.
8.63
The king's wife said: / "Be gracious to me, master, and buy this boy as well; / even if bought, I will not accomplish your work without him.
8.64
Thus be disposed toward grace to me, unfortunate as I am; / unite me with the child, as a milch cow with her calf."
8.65
The brahmin said: / "Let this wealth be taken by you; let the boy be given to me. / For by those who know the treatises on dharma, the wages of women and men have indeed been fixed / by some at a hundred, a thousand, a hundred thousand, and a price of ten million."
8.66
The birds said: / Having bound that wealth in the upper garment of that [king] just so, / he took the child and bound him together with his mother in one place.
8.67
Seeing the two of them being led away, his wife and son, that lord of the earth / lamented, afflicted by intense sorrow, sighing hot breaths again and again:
8.68
"She whom neither the wind, nor the sun, nor the moon, nor ordinary people / had ever seen before, that wife has now been reduced to slavery!
8.69
This boy, born in the Solar Dynasty, with delicate fingers on his hands, / has been sold! Curse upon me, evil-minded as I am!
8.70
Alas, beloved! Alas, child! Child! Through the wicked conduct of me, an ignoble man, / you have been brought to a condition subjected to fate; yet I have not died—curse [me]!"
8.71
The birds said: / As the king lamented in this manner, that brahmin disappeared / among the tall trees, houses, and other structures, taking the two with him in haste.
8.72
Then Viśvāmitra arrived and asked the king for wealth; / and Hariścandra surrendered that wealth to him.
8.73
Seeing that wealth, produced by the sale of the wife, to be small, / the enraged descendant of Kuśika spoke to the king overcome by sorrow:
8.74
"O contemptible warrior! If you consider this an adequate sacrificial fee for me, / then quickly see my supreme power,
8.75
the power of my well-practiced asceticism, of my spotless brahminhood, / of my terrible authority, and of my pure recitation [of the Vedas]!"
8.76
[Hariścandra said:] "I will give you other [wealth], blessed one! Let some time be waited for; / at present there is none; my wife and young son have been sold."
8.77
Viśvāmitra said: / "Only this fourth part of the day that remains, O lord of men, / is to be waited for by me; no reply should be spoken by you."
8.78
The birds said: / Having spoken that harsh, merciless speech to the lord of kings, / the enraged descendant of Kuśika took that wealth and quickly departed.
8.79
When Viśvāmitra had gone, the king, standing in the midst of an ocean of fear and grief, / having resolved upon every possibility, spoke loudly with downcast face:
8.80
"Whatever man has need of me as a servant bought with wealth, / let him speak with haste while the sun still shines!"
8.81
Then Dharma arrived quickly, bearing the form of a caṇḍāla: / foul-smelling, deformed, rough, bearded, buck-toothed, repulsive,
8.82
black, pot-bellied, with yellowish-brown dry eyes, uttering harsh syllables, / carrying a cluster of birds, and adorned with garlands from corpses,
8.83
holding a skull in hand, long-faced, terrifying, shouting repeatedly, / surrounded by a pack of dogs, dreadful, holding a staff, shapeless.
8.84
The caṇḍāla said: / "I have need of you; quickly declare your own price, / whether small or great, by which you may be acquired."
8.85
The birds said: / Then, looking upon him as such, cruel in gaze, very harsh, / speaking [rudely] and extremely ill-behaved, the lord of the earth said, "Who are you?"
8.86
The caṇḍāla said: / "I am a caṇḍāla known here in the supreme city as Pravīra, / famous as an executioner of those condemned to death, and a taker of blankets from corpses."
8.87
Hariścandra said: / "I do not desire servitude to a caṇḍāla, which is highly condemned; / better to be burnt by the fire of a curse than to fall under the power of a caṇḍāla."
8.88
The birds said: / As he was speaking thus, Viśvāmitra, a treasury of asceticism, arrived, / his eyes wide open with rage and indignation, and said this to the lord of men:
8.89
Viśvāmitra said: / "This caṇḍāla is present to give you no small wealth; / why is the sacrificial fee not given to me in full?"
8.90
Hariścandra said: / "Blessed one! I know myself to be born of the Solar Dynasty, O descendant of Kuśika; / how shall I enter servitude to a caṇḍāla out of desire for wealth?"
8.91
Viśvāmitra said: / "If you do not give me in due time the wealth of a caṇḍāla / born from the sale of yourself, I will curse you without doubt."
8.92
The birds said: / Then King Hariścandra, his life hanging upon anxiety, / saying, "Be gracious!" seized the feet of the sage, distraught:
8.93
"I am your slave, I am afflicted, I am afraid, and especially devoted to you; / show favor, O brahmin sage! Mingling with a caṇḍāla is terrible!
8.94
For the remainder of the wealth, I will be a servant performing all work, subject to control, / an attendant compliant with your mind, yours alone, O tiger among sages!"
8.95
Viśvāmitra said: / "If you are my servant, then you, having attained the state of a slave, / have indeed been given by me to the caṇḍāla for a hundred million [pieces of] wealth."
8.96
The birds said: / When it was spoken thus by him, the outcaste, delighted in mind, / gave that wealth to Viśvāmitra, and binding the lord of men,
8.97
dazed by blows of a staff, with his senses intensely agitated, / tormented by separation from his beloved kin, led him to his own dwelling.
8.98
Then King Hariścandra, living in the settlement of the caṇḍālas, / sang this in the morning, at midday, and in the evening:
8.99
"Seeing the boy with a miserable face before her, the young woman, with a miserable face, / overcome by unhappiness, remembers me: 'The king will deliver us both.'
8.100
Having acquired wealth and given that wealth, and even more, to the brahmin, / that fawn-eyed woman does not know that I have been reduced to an even baser state.
8.101
The loss of kingdom, the abandonment of friends, the sale of wife and son, / and this condition of being a caṇḍāla attained—alas, the succession of sorrows!"
8.102
Living thus constantly, robbed of all his possessions and tormented, / he remembered his beloved son and his noble wife, absorbed in his thoughts.
8.103
Then, after some time, King Hariścandra became a stripper of dead bodies' clothes / in the cremation ground, subject to his master's control.
8.104
He was instructed by the caṇḍāla who stripped the clothes of corpses: / "Stay here day and night, watching for the arrival of corpses.
8.105
This sixth part per corpse must also be given to the king; / three parts shall be mine, and two parts shall be your wage."
8.106
Having been thus instructed, he went to the house of corpses, / which was then situated in the southern quarter in Vārāṇasī—
8.107
a cremation ground resplendent with terrible clamour, filled with hundreds of jackals, / strewn with the skulls of corpses, foul-smelling, and filled with much smoke,
8.108
crowded with piśācas, bhūtas, vetālas, ḍākinīs, and yakṣas, / teeming with vultures and jackals, and surrounded by packs of dogs,
8.109
thick with heaps of bones, filled with a great stench, / accompanied by the dreadful uproar of the wailing of diverse friends of the dead:
8.110
"Alas, son! Friend! Alas, kinsman! Brother, child! My beloved today! / Alas, husband! Sister! Mother! Alas, maternal uncle! Grandfather!
8.111
Maternal grandfather! Father! Where have you gone? Come, kinsman!" / Where such a great clamour was heard from those who were speaking thus.
8.112
[The ground] was filled with the sizzling sound of burning flesh, fat, and marrow.
8.113
The half-burnt, blackened corpses, showing their rows of teeth / as they lay in the midst of the fire, seemed to laugh: "Such is the fate of the body!"
8.114
There was the crackling sound of the fire upon the rows of bones of old people, / and the sound of wailing kinsmen, and [the noise] born of joy among the pukkasas.
8.115
From the singing troops of bhūtas, vetālas, piśācas, and rakṣasas / was heard a very great, dreadful roar, like the end of an aeon.
8.116
It was filled with masses of dry dung of great buffaloes and cow-dung, / and covered with high mounds of ash and bones rising from it,
8.117
dark with various offerings, garlands, lamps, and the scatterings of crows; / abounding in many noises, the cremation ground resembled hell.
8.118
Reverberating with inauspicious howls of jackals containing fire in their maws, / deep with terrifying cries, / excessively generating fear even in fear itself, / the cremation ground was dreadful with the sounds of weeping.
8.119
Arriving there, that king, sorrowful, began to lament: / "Alas, servants! Ministers! Brahmins! That kingdom, by destiny, is gone!
8.120
Alas, Śaivyā! Alas, my boy, my child! Having abandoned me, who am ill-fated, / on account of Viśvāmitra's fault, where have those people of mine gone?"
8.121
Thinking thus there repeatedly, he became what the caṇḍāla had described: / filthy, with all limbs parched, hairy, foul-smelling, bearing a staff,
8.122
carrying a club, resembling the God of Death, and running here and there: / "On this corpse, this price has been received, and this too I shall receive.
8.123
This is mine, this is for the king, and this for the chief caṇḍāla." / Running in all directions thus, the king, though alive, had entered another womb.
8.124
Wearing a patched rag made of well-knotted old tattered clothes, / his face, arms, belly, and feet smeared with the dust of ashes from the pyre,
8.125
his hands and fingers smeared with various types of fat, grease, and marrow, panting, / dedicated to the satisfaction of meals made from various corpse-offerings of food,
8.126
his head adorned with the wreaths clinging from those [corpses], / he slept neither by night nor by day, crying "Alas, alas!" repeatedly.
8.127
In this way, twelve months were passed, seeming like a hundred years. / Once, that best of kings, exhausted and separated from his kin,
8.128
overcome by sleep, his limbs dry, motionless, indeed fell asleep. / There too on that bed, he saw a great marvel:
8.129
Through association with the cremation ground, and through the power of destiny, / having given the guru's fee to the guru in another body,
8.130
then, after twelve years, as an expiation for inflicting grief, / he saw himself born from the womb of a pukkasa woman.
8.131
Remaining there, that king then thought this: / "The moment I emerge from here, I shall indeed perform acts of charity and dharma."
8.132
Thereafter, he was born then as a pukkasa boy, / constantly engaged in performing the funeral rites for the dead in the cremation ground.
8.133
When he reached his seventh year, a dead twice-born man, / brought by his relatives, was seen there by him—a poor but virtuous man.
8.134
Desiring the fee, the brahmins were insulted by him; / those brahmins there spoke of the deed of Viśvāmitra:
8.135
"Commit the most sinful and unpropitious act, you sinner! / Formerly King Hariścandra was made a pukkasa by Viśvāmitra
8.136
through the destruction of his merit, because of the loss of a brahmin's property." / When he did not show forbearance to them, he was cursed by them in anger then:
8.137
"Go to dreadful hell right now, lowest of men!" / As soon as this word was spoken, that king, while in the dream, then
8.138
saw messengers of Yama, fearful, with nooses in hand; / and seized by them, he saw himself being led away by force then.
8.139
Extremely distressed, he beheld [this], saying: "Alas, mother! Father, today for me!" / Speaking thus, he was thrown into a vat of boiling oil in hell.
8.140
Being torn apart by saws, and also below by edges of razors, / afflicted by sorrow in blind darkness, eating pus and blood,
8.141
he saw his own self dead at seven years of age in the state of a pukkasa; / day by day he is burned in hell, cooked elsewhere,
8.142
he is tormented, shaken elsewhere, killed, torn apart elsewhere, / dissolved in alkali, scorched elsewhere, struck by cold wind elsewhere.
8.143
Thus a day became the measure of a hundred years in hell; / in that way, a hundred years were suffered in hell at the hands of the soldiers.
8.144
Then, cast down to earth, he was born as a dog eating feces, / eating vomit and scorched by cold; and he died in just a month.
8.145
Then he saw [himself in] the body of an ass, an elephant, a monkey, a beast, / a goat, a cat, a heron, a cow, a sheep, a bird, a worm.
8.146
A fish, a tortoise, a boar, a porcupine, a rooster, a parrot,
a myna, stationary beings, a snake, and other embodied creatures.
8.147
Day after day, the birth of creature after creature
he then witnessed, scorched by suffering, for a hundred years like a single day.
8.148
Thus a full hundred years passed there in base wombs;
and once the king saw a being born of his own lineage.
8.149
While he was dwelling there, his kingdom was lost at dice,
his wife and son were taken away, and he went alone to the forest.
8.150
There he beheld a terrifying lion with mouth agape,
accompanied by a śarabha, coming eager to devour him.
8.151
And having been devoured again, he began to lament for his wife:
“Alas, Śaivyā! Where have you gone today, leaving me here in sorrow?”
8.152
Again he saw his own wife together with their little son:
“Protect [us], Hariścandra! What had you to do with dice, O lord?
8.153
Your son has been brought to a pitiable state along with your wife Śaivyā!”
Running repeatedly, he saw [them] no longer.
8.154
Then again that lord of men, situated in heaven, saw
that wretched woman dragged by force, her hair disheveled and stripped of clothes,
8.155
Uttering cries of “Alas, alas!”, repeatedly calling “Save me!”
Then again, by command of the King of Dharma, he saw there
8.156
She, crying out while standing in the intermediate space: “Come here, O lord of men!
Yama has been petitioned by Viśvāmitra concerning you, O king!”
8.157
Having said this, the lord was dragged by force with nooses of serpents;
and the deeds of Viśvāmitra were recounted by Śrāddhadeva.
8.158
Even there, no corruption born of unrighteousness arose in him.
All these conditions were shown to him in a dream.
8.159
All of them were experienced by him for twelve years.
When the twelfth year had passed, as he was being dragged by force by soldiers,
8.160
He saw Yama in bodily form, and [Yama] said to the lord of men:
“This wrath of the high-souled Viśvāmitra is difficult to avert.
8.161
That son of Kuśika will even grant death to your son.
Go to the mortal world and experience the remainder of your suffering;
when you have gone there, O best of kings, good fortune will be yours.”
8.162
When the twelfth year had passed, at the end of his sorrow, the lord of men
fell from the intermediate space, impelled by Yama's messengers.
8.163
Having fallen from Yama's realm, he awoke in terror and confusion,
thinking, “Alas, what misery! This is the application of salt to a wound!
8.164
Great suffering whose end is nowhere seen was witnessed in a dream!
Has what was seen by me in a dream truly lasted twelve years?”
8.165
He asked the Pukkasas dwelling there in bewilderment, “Has [twelve years] passed?”
Some dwelling there said, “No,” while others said, “Indeed so.”
8.166
Hearing this, the sorrowful king took refuge with the gods:
“May the gods grant well-being to me, to Śaivyā, and to the boy!
8.167
Obeisance to great Dharma! Obeisance to Kṛṣṇa, the creator,
to the higher and the lower, the pure, the ancient, and the imperishable!
8.168
Obeisance to you, Bṛhaspati! Obeisance to you, Vāsava!”
Having spoken thus, the king engaged in the work of a Pukkasa,
8.169
In determining the price of corpses, having once again lost his memory, as it were;
filthy, matted-haired, darkened, holding a staff, the king was agitated.
8.170
Neither his son nor his wife was within the range of his memory;
his vigor lost from the ruin of his kingdom, he was dwelling then in the cremation ground.
8.171
Then the wife of that king arrived, lamenting,
bringing her dead son, the little boy bitten by a snake,
8.172
Repeatedly saying, “Alas, my child! Alas, my son, my little one!”,
emaciated, pale, despondent, her hair covered with dust.
8.173
The king's wife said:
“Alas, O king, look today upon your boy, Soma on the earth,
whom you once saw playing, now dead by a venomous serpent!”
8.174
Hearing the sound of her lamentation, that lord of men
went quickly, thinking, “Here there will be a shroud from the dead.”
8.175
The ruler of the earth did not recognize his bitterly weeping wife,
a helpless woman tormented by long exile, as though born anew.
8.176
She too, having previously seen the king with handsome hair,
did not recognize the matted-haired monarch, resembling a withered tree.
8.177
He, seeing the boy on a black cloth, stricken by a venomous serpent
yet endowed with the marks of a king, the ruler of men fell into thought:
8.178
“Alas, what misery! Born in the family of some king, this child
has been carried off to some unforeseen realm by wretched Death.
8.179
Seeing this boy lying in his mother's lap,
my own lotus-eyed boy Rohitāśva has come to my memory.
8.180
My child too would have reached this very stage of life,
if he has not been brought under his sway by dreadful Death.”
8.181
The king's wife said:
“Alas, my child! From the malevolent thought of what sin has this great,
dreadful sorrow befallen, whose end is nowhere seen?
8.182
Alas, my lord! O king! Without consoling me in my grief,
how can you remain at ease, staying in some place or other?
8.183
Loss of kingdom, abandonment of friends, the sale of wife and son—
what has not been done by you, O Destiny, to the royal sage Hariścandra?”
8.184
Hearing her words, the king, shaken from his composure,
recognized his beloved and his son who had met his end.
8.185
Crying out, “Alas, this is Śaivyā, and this is that boy!”,
he wept, burned by grief, and fell into a swoon.
8.186
And recognizing him, who had arrived at such a state,
she fell fainting to the earth, afflicted and motionless.
8.187
Regaining consciousness together, the best of kings
and the king's wife lamented, deeply tormented and weighed down by grief.
8.187.p1
The king said:
8.188
“Alas, my child! Seeing your delicate, pitiable face,
with its beautiful eyes, brows, nose, and locks, why does my heart not burst?
8.189
To whom, coming of his own accord and sweetly saying, ‘Father! Father!’,
shall I say, embracing him out of affection, ‘Child! My child!’?
8.190
By whose tawny dust from the earth, brought by crawling on his knees,
will my upper garment, my lap, and my limbs be soiled?
8.191
Born from every limb of mine, the delighter of my mind and heart—
alas, my child, by me, an evil father, you were sold like an article of merchandise!”
8.192
Having seized my entire kingdom, great and replete with resources and wealth, / my son was then bitten by the cruel serpent of fate.
8.193
Even as I gaze upon the lotus-face of my son bitten by the serpent of fate, / I am now blinded by terrible poison.
8.194
Having said this one [lament], taking that boy, his voice choked with tears, / and embracing him, motionless, he collapsed in a faint.
8.195
The king’s wife said:
This tiger among men is recognized by his very voice; / he is Hariścandra, the moon to the mind of wise men, without doubt.
8.196
Likewise, his nose is prominent, turned downward at the tip, / and the teeth of this illustrious great-souled one are like buds.
8.197
Why has this lord of men come to the cremation ground today? / Setting aside grief for her son, she looked upon her fallen husband.
8.198
Overwhelmed, astonished, wretched, tormented by grief for husband and son, / looking about, she then saw her husband’s abhorrent staff,
8.199
suitable for an outcaste dog-cooker; therefore the wide-eyed woman fell into a swoon. / Regaining consciousness, she slowly spoke, her voice choked [with tears]:
First 200 of 275 passages. Read on
Translations (1)
- The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa — Frederick Eden Pargiter 1888, English
Linked texts (1)
- Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit