Vamana Purana — Merit of Shravana Dvadashi, Shloka 47
The Merit of Śravaṇa-Dvādaśī and the Liberation of a Preta through Gayā Piṇḍa-Rites
ऋते पिनाकिनो देवात् त्रात्ऽस्मान् न यतो हरे अतो विवृद्धिमगमद् यथा व्याधिरुपेक्षितः
ṛte pinākino devāt trāt'smān na yato hare ato vivṛddhimagamad yathā vyādhirupekṣitaḥ
[{"question": "Why is the Aśvamedha significant in Bali’s rise?", "answer": "In Purāṇic and Vedic political theology, Aśvamedha functions as a paramount sovereignty-rite (rājya/aiśvarya confirmation). By undertaking it under Śukra’s guidance, Bali seeks ritual legitimacy and the accumulation of merit/power to extend dominion beyond the usual terrestrial and celestial bounds."}, {"question": "What does ‘conquer even those in Brahmaloka’ imply?", "answer": "It signals hyperbolic, trans-cosmic ambition: not merely defeating Devas in Svarga but challenging the highest created realm associated with Brahmā. This frames Bali’s enterprise as an overreach that destabilizes cosmic order, warranting corrective divine intervention."}, {"question": "Is Brahmaloka treated as sacred geography here?", "answer": "It is a cosmological ‘loka’ rather than a pilgrimage tīrtha. The verse provides a vertical (cosmic) geography marker, not the horizontal river–forest–tīrtha mapping typical of the Vāmana Purāṇa’s terrestrial sections."}]
{ "primaryRasa": "karuna", "secondaryRasa": "shanta", "rasaIntensity": 0, "emotionalArcPosition": "", "moodDescriptors": [] }
FAQs
The line frames the crisis as requiring supreme divine protection; Śiva is acknowledged as the Pināka-bearing protector, while Hari is directly invoked as the one who will act within this narrative arc (culminating in Viṣṇu’s avatāra intervention). It reflects a Purāṇic idiom where deities are invoked in complementary roles rather than strict sectarian separation.
It depicts unchecked adharma/asuric power as self-amplifying: when not countered by timely dharmic action (divine or royal), it spreads like an untreated illness. The simile justifies the necessity of decisive intervention rather than passive endurance.
No explicit river, lake, forest, or tīrtha is named here; the verse is thematic and rhetorical, setting up the urgency for divine action rather than describing sacred geography.