Shloka 224
Karṇa’s Counsel on Śrī
Fortune) and the Proposed Display before the Exiled Pāṇḍavas (कर्णवचनम् / श्रीप्रदर्शन-प्रस्तावः
इस प्रकार श्रीमहाभारत वनपर्वके अन्तर्गत मार्कण्डेयसमास्यापर्वमें आंगिरसोपाख्यानके प्रसंगर्ें स्कनन््दकी उत्पत्तिविषयक दो सौ चौबीसवाँ अध्याय पूरा हुआ
iti prakāraṁ śrīmahābhārata-vanaparva-ke antargata-mārkaṇḍeya-samāsyāparvaṇi āṅgirasa-upākhyāna-prasaṅge skandasya utpatti-viṣayaka dviśata-caturviṁśatitam adhyāyaḥ samāptaḥ
Thus ends the two-hundred and twenty-fourth chapter, concerning the birth of Skanda, within the Āṅgirasa episode of the Mārkaṇḍeya-samāsya section of the Vana Parva of the Śrī Mahābhārata. The narrator Mārkaṇḍeya marks the completion of this unit, framing the account as a sacred exemplum within the forest-book’s larger ethical and mythic instruction.
मार्कण्डेय उवाच
Educational Q&A
As a colophon, the verse primarily teaches textual framing: sacred narratives are presented in ordered sections, and the completion formula signals closure, aiding memorization, recitation, and the ethical reception of the embedded myth (here, Skanda’s origin) within the larger dharmic discourse of the forest-book.
The speaker Mārkaṇḍeya is not advancing the plot but formally concluding the chapter: it states that the 224th chapter—about Skanda’s birth, occurring in the context of the Āṅgirasa embedded tale within a named sub-section of Vana Parva—has ended.