Shloka 15
Kārttikeya-Abhiṣecana: Mātṛgaṇa-Nāma Saṃkīrtana and Skanda’s Commission
ऐरावत: सानुचर: कला: काष्ठास्तथैव च । मासार्धमासा ऋतवस्तथा रात्रयहनी नूप
vaiśampāyana uvāca |
airāvataḥ sānucaraḥ kalāḥ kāṣṭhās tathaiva ca |
māsārdhamāsā ṛtavas tathā rātryahanī nṛpa ||
Vaiśampāyana said: O king, Airāvata came there together with his attendants; and likewise the divine measures of time—Kalā and Kāṣṭhā—along with the months, half-months, the seasons, and day and night. Thus even the very order of time and cosmic regulation is portrayed as assembling in attendance, underscoring that the event being described is of universal, world-sustaining significance rather than merely personal or local.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
By depicting even the measures of time (kalā, kāṣṭhā), the cycles of months and seasons, and day and night as ‘arriving’ in attendance, the text signals that dharma and cosmic order are not abstract ideas but living structures that uphold the world. The scene implies that certain events—especially those involving divine leadership and the protection of order—draw the whole cosmos into witness and support.
The narrator continues a grand catalogue of beings and cosmic principles assembling at one place. In this verse, Airāvata (Indra’s elephant) arrives with attendants, and the personified divisions and cycles of time—kalā, kāṣṭhā, months, half-months, seasons, and day-night—are said to be present, emphasizing the magnitude and universality of the gathering.