Vamana Purana — Jabali on the Banyan Tree, Shloka 19
Jabali Bound on the Banyan Tree and Nandayanti’s Appeal at Sri-Kantha on the Yamuna
किं त्वया न श्रुतं दैत्य यथा दण्डो महीपलिः परस्त्रीकामवान् मूढः सराष्ट्रो नाशमाप्तवान्
kiṃ tvayā na śrutaṃ daitya yathā daṇḍo mahīpaliḥ parastrīkāmavān mūḍhaḥ sarāṣṭro nāśamāptavān
Have you not heard, O Daitya, how Daṇḍa, a lord of the earth—foolish and consumed by desire for another man’s wife—met destruction along with his entire kingdom?
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FAQs
Purāṇic rājadharma treats the king as the moral axis of the polity. When the ruler violates foundational restraints (especially sexual ethics and protection of others’ households), the disorder is not private; it spreads as social and cosmic imbalance, symbolized by the realm’s ruin.
The name ‘Daṇḍa’ evokes the king’s duty to uphold punishment and order. The irony is deliberate: the one meant to embody restraint and justice becomes ruled by kāma, illustrating how failure of self-governance collapses external governance.
It functions as a mirror: the Daitya’s transgressive desire (often framed in the Andhaka cycle as illicit pursuit and arrogance) is shown to have precedent and consequence—ruin is the predictable end of unchecked kāma and pride.