Shloka 14

बदरपाचन-तीर्थमाहात्म्यम् | Badarapācana Tīrtha Māhātmya

Indratīrtha and the Austerities of Srucāvatī & Arundhatī

Devanagari script

नष्टो न दृश्यते यत्र शमीगर्भे हुताशन: । लोकालोकविनाशे च प्रादुर्भूते तदानघ

Transliteration

naṣṭo na dṛśyate yatra śamīgarbhe hutāśanaḥ | lokālokavināśe ca prādurbhūte tadānagha ||

Translation

Vaiśampāyana sprach: „Dort, wo das Feuer (Hutāśana), im Schoß des Śamī-Baumes verborgen, nicht zu sehen ist, und als sich zu jener Zeit die Vernichtung von Licht und Dunkel—der geordneten Welt—offenbarte, o Schuldloser.“

Word by Word

नष्टःdestroyed, lost

नnot

दृश्यतेis seen, appears

यत्रwhere

शमी-गर्भेin the womb/interior of the śamī tree

हुताशनःfire (Agni)

लोक-अलोक-विनाशेat the destruction of (the regions of) light and darkness / the known and unknown worlds

चand

प्रादुर्भूतेwhen (it is) manifested/appeared

तदाthen, at that time

अनघO sinless one

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

Vaiśampāyana

Hutāśana (Agni)

Śamī tree

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse evokes an image of hidden fire and the collapse of the normal order of light and darkness, suggesting a time when what sustains order becomes concealed and destructive forces become manifest—an ominous marker of moral and cosmic disarray often associated with the devastation of war.

What is happening in the narrative?

Vaiśampāyana continues a descriptive passage using portent-like imagery: fire that exists but is not visible (as in the śamī) and a manifested ‘destruction of light and darkness,’ intensifying the sense that an extraordinary, catastrophic condition has arisen.