Markandeya Purana — Adhyaya 50, Shloka 83
Adhyaya 50 — Mind-Born Progeny, Svayambhuva Manu’s Lineage, and Brahmā’s Ordinance to Duḥsaha (Alakṣmī’s Retinue)
यत्र कष्टकिनो वृक्षा यत्र निष्पाववल्लरी ।
भार्या पुनर्भूर्वल्मीकस्तद्यक्षा ! तव मन्दिरम् ॥
yatra kaṣṭakino vṛkṣā yatra niṣpāva-vallarī | bhāryā punarbhūr valmīkas tad yakṣa! tava mandiram ||
Where there are thorny trees, where the niṣpāva creeper grows, where the wife is a remarried woman, and where there are anthills—O Yakṣa, that is your dwelling.
FAQs
Neglect and disorder are portrayed as invitations to misfortune. Some markers reflect ancient social norms (e.g., punarbhū) used as ‘nimitta’ (omens) in the text’s cultural setting rather than as universal ethical judgments.
Not pañcalakṣaṇa; it is nimitta-śāstra-like dharma instruction embedded in Purāṇic teaching.
Thorns and anthills symbolize obstruction and stagnation—tamas accumulating in the domestic sphere—becoming a ‘seat’ for inauspicious forces.