Markandeya Purana — Adhyaya 8, Shloka 198
Adhyaya 8 — Harishchandra’s Trial: Truth, the Sale of Family, and Bondage to a Chandala
प्रकृष्टा विस्मिता दीना भर्तृपुत्राधिपीडिता ।
वीक्षन्ती सा ततोऽपश्यद् भर्तृदण्डं जुगुप्सितम् ॥
prakṛṣṭā vismitā dīnā bhartṛ-putrādhi-pīḍitā |
vīkṣantī sā tato 'paśyad bhartṛ-daṇḍaṃ jugupsitam ||
চারদিকে তাকিয়ে তিনি ভীষণভাবে কেঁপে উঠলেন—বিস্মিত, দীন, স্বামী ও পুত্রের বিপদে পীড়িত। তখন তিনি স্বামীর সেই ঘৃণ্য দণ্ড (অবনত অবস্থার চিহ্ন) দেখলেন।
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FAQs
The ‘loathsome staff’ embodies how external roles can invert; the verse invites discrimination between intrinsic worth and socially assigned occupation/status.
Outside pañcalakṣaṇa; serves the Purāṇic moral-narrative function of illustrating the fragility of worldly power.
Daṇḍa can symbolize ‘discipline’ or ‘fate’s rod’: the same sign that once implied authority now signifies abasement—showing the dual edge of power and karma.