Shloka 159
Adhyaya 8 — Harishchandra’s Trial: Truth, the Sale of Family, and Bondage to a Chandala
सर्वास्तास्तेन सम्भुक्ता यावद्वर्षाणि द्वादश ।
अतीते द्वादशे वर्षे नीयमानो भटैर्बलात् ॥
sarvās tās tena sambhuktā yāvad varṣāṇi dvādaśa | atīte dvādaśe varṣe nīyamāno bhaṭair balāt ||
Er erfuhr all jene Zustände zwölf Jahre lang. Als die zwölf Jahre verstrichen waren, wurde er von Dienern mit Gewalt fortgeführt.
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FAQs
Consequences are portrayed as time-bound: one ‘undergoes’ (sambhuj) a fixed measure until exhaustion. The verse teaches endurance and the certainty that both pleasure and pain have termini when they are karmically conditioned.
Carita with dharma-kāla (moral time) emphasis; it does not enumerate manvantaras but uses a clear chronological marker typical of purāṇic narration.
The ‘twelve years’ can be read symbolically as a complete cycle (often associated with Jupiter’s cycle in Indian time-reckoning), indicating a full maturation and discharge of a karmic phase.