Shloka 19
Nāga–Nāgabhāryā Saṃvāda: Varṇa-Dharma, Gṛhastha-Discipline, and Mokṣa-Self-Inquiry
Mahābhārata 12.347
देष्टाभ्यां प्रविनिर्धूता ममैते दक्षिणां दिशम् । अश्रिता धरणीं पिण्डास्तस्मात् पितर एव ते
deṣṭābhyāṁ pravinirḍhūtā mamāite dakṣiṇāṁ diśam | āśritā dharaṇīṁ piṇḍās tasmāt pitar eva te ||
Nārada dit : «Ébranlés et arrachés à mes deux défenses, ces amas tombèrent vers le quartier du Sud et vinrent se poser sur la terre. C’est pourquoi ils sont véritablement de la nature des Pitṛs, les pères ancestraux.»
नारद उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse grounds Pitṛ-related ritual symbolism in a sacred origin: what falls to the southern quarter and rests on earth becomes identified with the Pitṛs, reinforcing the dharmic authority of ancestral rites (piṇḍa-offerings) and the traditional association of the south with the ancestors.
Nārada narrates an origin episode in which three piṇḍas are dislodged from (the speaker’s) two tusks and fall toward the southern direction onto the earth; by this event they are declared to be Pitṛ-svarūpa—embodiments of the ancestral fathers.