Shloka 2031
इति श्रीमहा भारते वनपर्वणि मार्कण्डेयसमास्यापर्वणि धुन्धुमारोपाख्याने एकाधिकद्विशततमो<ध्याय:
iti śrīmahābhārate vanaparvaṇi mārkaṇḍeyasamāsyāparvaṇi dhundhumāropākhyāne ekādhikadvīśatatamo 'dhyāyaḥ
Thus, in the revered Mahābhārata, within the Vana Parva—specifically in the section associated with Mārkaṇḍeya—during the episode concerning Dhundhumāra, ends the two-hundred-and-second chapter. This is a colophon marking the close of a narrative unit, situating the listener within the forest-book’s moral storytelling framework, where exemplary tales are used to illuminate dharma through remembered history.
मार्कण्डेय उवाच
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This line functions as a colophon rather than a doctrinal verse: its purpose is to anchor the reader in the Mahābhārata’s structure, indicating that the preceding Dhundhumāra episode—told within the Vana Parva’s Mārkaṇḍeya-linked section—has concluded, reinforcing the epic’s method of teaching dharma through framed exemplary narratives.
The narration pauses to mark closure: it states that, within the Mahābhārata’s Vana Parva, in the Mārkaṇḍeya-associated section, the Dhundhumāra upākhyāna has reached the end of chapter 202.