Markandeya Purana — Adhyaya 8, Shloka 198
Adhyaya 8 — Harishchandra’s Trial: Truth, the Sale of Family, and Bondage to a Chandala
प्रकृष्टा विस्मिता दीना भर्तृपुत्राधिपीडिता ।
वीक्षन्ती सा ततोऽपश्यद् भर्तृदण्डं जुगुप्सितम् ॥
prakṛṣṭā vismitā dīnā bhartṛ-putrādhi-pīḍitā |
vīkṣantī sā tato 'paśyad bhartṛ-daṇḍaṃ jugupsitam ||
Utterly shaken, astonished, and wretched—afflicted by the calamity concerning husband and son—while looking about, she then saw the loathsome staff of her husband (the staff he bears in his degraded role).
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FAQs
The ‘loathsome staff’ embodies how external roles can invert; the verse invites discrimination between intrinsic worth and socially assigned occupation/status.
Outside pañcalakṣaṇa; serves the Purāṇic moral-narrative function of illustrating the fragility of worldly power.
Daṇḍa can symbolize ‘discipline’ or ‘fate’s rod’: the same sign that once implied authority now signifies abasement—showing the dual edge of power and karma.