Markandeya Purana — Adhyaya 74, Shloka 48
Adhyaya 74 — King Svarashtra, the Deer-Queen’s Curse, and the Rise of Tamasa Manu
तामसीं भजमानायां योनिं मातर्यजायत ।
तमसा चावृते लोके तामसोऽयं भविष्यति ॥
tāmasīṃ bhajamānāyāṃ yoniṃ mātary ajāyata / tamasā cāvṛte loke tāmaso 'yaṃ bhaviṣyati
সে এমন এক মাতার গর্ভে জন্মেছিল, যিনি তামসিক যোনিতে প্রবিষ্ট হয়েছিলেন; আর যেহেতু জগৎ অন্ধকারে আচ্ছন্ন ছিল, তাই তার নাম হবে ‘তামস’।
FAQs
Purāṇic naming often encodes circumstance and character: the verse ties identity to guṇa-influence and the ambient condition of the world, implying that leaders arise shaped by their time.
Manvantara-adjacent Vamśānucarita: the naming ‘Tāmasa’ helps classify the figure within the larger epochal/Manu narrative.
‘Darkness covering the world’ can symbolize collective ignorance; the emergence of a Manu-figure even in tamas hints that order can be instituted amid decline, though colored by the prevailing guṇa.