Shloka 15
यकृत् कृष्णायसं तस्य त्रिभिरेव बभु: प्रजा: । नखास्तस्याभ्रपटलं शिराजालानि विद्रुमम्,और उनका यकृत् (जिगर) ही काले रंगका लोहा बनकर प्रकट हुआ। काष्ठ, पाषाण और लोहा--इन तीनोंसे ही प्रजाजनोंकी शोभा होती है। उनके नख मेघसमूहका रूप धारण करते हैं। नाडियाँ मूँगा बनकर प्रकट हुई हैं
yakṛt kṛṣṇāyasaṁ tasya tribhir eva babhūḥ prajāḥ | nakhās tasyābhrapaṭalaṁ śirājālāni vidrumam |
Mārkaṇḍeya said: From his liver there manifested black iron; and from three substances alone—wood, stone, and iron—his creatures came to have their distinctive forms and splendor. His nails took on the appearance of masses of clouds, and his networks of veins became coral.
मार्कण्डेय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses mythic bodily imagery to express how the material world is envisioned as emerging from a primordial being: metals, natural phenomena, and ornaments of the earth are portrayed as transformations of bodily elements, suggesting an ordered correspondence between body and cosmos.
Mārkaṇḍeya continues a cosmogonic description in which parts of a great being’s body become features and substances of the world: the liver becomes black iron, nails resemble cloud-banks, and the web of veins becomes coral, while beings are said to arise with the prominence of wood, stone, and iron.