Shloka 5
बदरपाचन-तीर्थमाहात्म्यम् | Badarapācana Tīrtha Māhātmya
Indratīrtha and the Austerities of Srucāvatī & Arundhatī
वैशम्पायन उवाच शृणु राजन्निदं चित्र पूर्वकल्पे यथातथम् । आदी कृतयुगे राजन् वर्तमाने यथाविधि
Vaiśampāyana uvāca: śṛṇu rājann idaṃ citraṃ pūrvakalpe yathātatham | ādau kṛtayuge rājan vartamāne yathāvidhi ||
قال فايشَمبايانا: «اسمعْ يا أيها الملك هذا الخبر العجيب، كما وقع على حقيقته في عصرٍ سالف. في البدء، في كِرْتَا يُوغا، أيها الملك، حين كانت الأمور تجري على وفق السنّة المقرّرة…»
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse foregrounds fidelity to tradition and truth in narration—an ethical commitment to report events “as they really happened,” and it invokes the Kṛta Yuga as a paradigm of dharma functioning according to prescribed order (vidhi).
Vaiśampāyana addresses the king and introduces a remarkable account from a former age, setting a temporal frame (“in the beginning, in the Kṛta Yuga”) before proceeding to the story that follows.