Vamana Purana — Shukra's Curse on King Danda, Shloka 135

Shukra’s Curse on King Danda and Andhaka’s Challenge to Shiva

Devanagari script

पर्जन्यं तत्र चामन्त्र्य प्रेषयित्वा महाश्रमे सप्तगोदावरे तीर्थे पातालमगमत् कपिः

Transliteration

parjanyaṃ tatra cāmantrya preṣayitvā mahāśrame saptagodāvare tīrthe pātālamagamat kapiḥ

Translation

There he summoned Parjanya and, having dispatched him to the great hermitage, the monkey went to Pātāla at the tīrtha called Sapta-Godāvarī.

Speakers

• Narrator voice (continuation of the emissary’s itinerary)

Primary Deities

• Parjanya

Key Themes

• Tirtha-mahima and pilgrimage mapping
• River-sacrality (Godāvarī complex)
• Cosmography (Pātāla)
• Ritual logistics (summoning/sending deities)

Verse Rasa (Emotional Flavour)

{ "primaryRasa": "adbhuta", "secondaryRasa": "shanta", "rasaIntensity": 0, "emotionalArcPosition": "", "moodDescriptors": [] }

FAQs

What is ‘Sapta-Godāvarī tīrtha’—does it imply seven branches or seven sacred spots?

The compound suggests a complex of ‘seven Godāvarīs’—commonly interpreted in tīrtha literature as either seven channels/streams, seven confluences, or seven sanctified bathing/ritual points associated with the Godāvarī. The verse itself flags it as a named tīrtha, indicating a recognized pilgrimage node.

Why is Parjanya invoked and then sent to a ‘mahāśrama’?

Parjanya, as rain-deity, is often linked with fertility, ritual success, and the sustaining of ascetic settlements. Sending him to a great hermitage implies ensuring auspicious conditions—rain, prosperity, or ritual enablement—for the āśrama’s rites or residents.

How should ‘the monkey went to Pātāla’ be understood—literal descent or mythic travel?

Within Purāṇic narrative, travel to Pātāla can be literal in-story (a descent to the netherworld) and simultaneously cosmographic (signaling movement across the layered universe). Here it also heightens the tīrtha’s potency: the tīrtha is presented as a liminal point connected to deeper cosmic realms.