Varaha Purana 39.49: Adhyaya 39, Shloka 49
Discrimination of the Three Bodies and the Dharaṇī Vow: A Manual for Dvādaśī Observance
रसातलगता वेदा यथा देव त्वयाहृताः । मत्स्यरूपेण तद्वन्मां भवानुद्धर केशव ॥ एवमुच्चार्य तस्याग्रे जागरं तत्र कारयेत् ॥ ३९.४९ ॥
rasātalagatā vedā yathā deva tvayāhṛtāḥ | matsyarūpeṇa tadvan māṃ bhavān uddhara keśava | evam uccārya tasyāgre jāgaraṃ tatra kārayet || 39.49 ||
“Just as, O God, the Vedas that had gone down to Rasātala were recovered by you in the form of a Fish, so too—O Keśava—lift me up and restore me.” Having thus uttered this, one should cause a vigil (jāgara) to be observed there in his presence.
Pṛthivī (defaulted by dialogue framework; direct addressee is Keśava/Viṣṇu)
FAQs
It preserves a widely attested Purāṇic motif: the recovery of the Vedas from a nether or cosmic realm, here invoked as an analogy for the restoration of the Earth—illustrating how Purāṇas interlink avatāra narratives with cosmological order and cultural memory.
Rasātala is not a terrestrial site but a cosmographic ‘nether region’ in classical Indian cosmology; it functions as a mythic spatial category rather than a modern mappable location.
The verse frames restoration (uddhāra) as a normative ideal—recovering what has been displaced or endangered (knowledge and Earth)—and pairs it with disciplined observance (jāgara) as a culturally sanctioned practice of remembrance and commitment.
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