Varaha Purana 24.8: Adhyaya 24, Shloka 8
The Birth of the Nāgas, Brahmā’s Curse, and the Pañcamī Observance
एतेषां तु प्रसूत्या तु इदमापूरितं जगत् । कुटिला हीनकर्माणस्तिक्ष्णास्योत्थविषोल्बणाः । दृष्ट्वा संदश्य मनुजान् कुर्युर्भस्म क्षणाद्ध्रुवम् ॥ २४.८ ॥
eteṣāṃ tu prasūtyā tu idam āpūritaṃ jagat | kuṭilā hīna-karmāṇas tīkṣṇāsyottha-viṣolbaṇāḥ | dṛṣṭvā saṃdaśya manujān kuryur bhasma kṣaṇād dhruvam || 24.8 ||
«Wahrlich, durch die Nachkommenschaft dieser ist diese Welt erfüllt worden. Von krummer Natur, von niederem Tun, mit scharfen Mäulern und geschwollen von gewaltigem Gift: erblickten sie Menschen, so würden sie sie beißen und sie im Nu gewiss zu Asche machen.»
Varāha (default, speaker not explicit in fragment)
FAQs
It reflects a common Purāṇic narrative strategy: describing harmful beings to explain perceived threats in the world and to frame broader cosmological or moral discussions within an encyclopedic mythic history.
No explicit geographic toponym appears in this verse; it is presented as a general cosmological statement about the world (jagat) rather than a site-specific description.
The verse primarily functions as a cautionary depiction of destructive, venomous entities; the implied philosophical instruction is vigilance regarding harmful forces and the consequences of base conduct (hīna-karman) in the moral imagination of the text.
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