इन्द्रद्युम्नोपाख्यानम्
Indradyumna Upākhyāna: On Kīrti, Smṛti, and Restoration
विपरीतश्न॒ लोको<यं भविष्यत्य धरोत्तर: । एड्कान् पूजयिष्यन्ति वर्जयिष्यन्ति देवता:,शूद्र धर्मोपदेश करेंगे और ब्राह्मणलोग उनकी सेवामें रहकर उसे सुनेंगे तथा उसीको प्रामाणिक मानकर उसका पालन करेंगे। समस्त लोकका व्यवहार विपरीत और उलट-पुलट हो जायगा। ऊँच नीच और नीच ऊँच हो जायँगे। लोग हड्डी जड़ी हुई दीवारोंकी तो पूजा करेंगे और देवविग्रहोंको त्याग देंगे
viparītaśno loko ’yaṁ bhaviṣyaty adharottaraḥ | eḍkān pūjayiṣyanti varjayiṣyanti devatāḥ ||
Mārkaṇḍeya said: “This world will become perverse in its conduct, with adharma rising above dharma. People will begin to worship bone-set walls and abandon the gods. Social order will be overturned: the low will be treated as high and the high as low; those unfit to teach will presume to instruct on dharma, and those meant to guide will submit and follow.”
मार्कण्डेय उवाच
The verse warns that when adharma dominates, society’s moral and social hierarchies invert: true objects of reverence are neglected, false substitutes are worshipped, and rightful guides in dharma are displaced—signaling ethical decay.
Mārkaṇḍeya is describing a future degeneration of the world’s conduct—an ominous forecast in which people abandon the gods and embrace misguided forms of worship, alongside a broader collapse of proper social and religious order.