Markandeya Purana — Adhyaya 51, Shloka 63
Adhyaya 51 — Yaksha Injunctions: Graha-Children and Female Spirits Causing Domestic and Ritual Disruptions
तौ तु वृक्षाग्र-परिखा-प्राकाराम्भोधि-संश्रयौ ।
गुर्विण्याः परिवर्तन्तौ कुरुतः पादपाणिषु ॥
tau tu vṛkṣāgra-parikhā-prākārāmbhodhi-saṃśrayau | gurviṇyāḥ parivartantau kurutaḥ pāda-pāṇiṣu ||
Those two took refuge in places such as the tops of trees, moats, ramparts, and the great ocean. Moving about within the pregnant woman, they caused affliction in her feet and hands.
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FAQs
The text frames certain disruptive forces as ‘seeking refuge’ in liminal or dangerous places (tree-tops, moats, ramparts, ocean)—locations associated with risk and separation—mirroring how adharma drives beings to precarious supports and causes suffering even before birth.
This is ancillary to Vaṃśānucarita, used for didactic dharma. It is not cosmogenesis but moralized narrative explaining the presence of harmful beings and the signs by which they are known.
The ‘liminal refuges’ can be read as symbolic of unstable mental states (high/low extremes, defensive walls, vast waters of fear). The womb-disturbance suggests that karmic tendencies can agitate embodiment from the earliest stage.