Markandeya Purana — Adhyaya 8, Shloka 122
Adhyaya 8 — Harishchandra’s Trial: Truth, the Sale of Family, and Bondage to a Chandala
लकुटी कालकल्पश्च धावंश्चापि ततस्ततः ।
अस्मिन् शव इदं मूल्यं प्राप्तं प्राप्स्यामि चाप्युत ॥
lakuṭī kāla-kalpaś ca dhāvaṃś cāpi tatas tataḥ /
asmin śava idaṃ mūlyaṃ prāptaṃ prāpsyāmi cāpy uta
Massue en main, d’aspect semblable à la Mort, il courait çà et là (en disant) : «Pour ce cadavre, voici le prix que j’ai obtenu—et je l’obtiendrai assurément.»
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FAQs
The verse critiques greed and moral collapse: even death becomes ‘commerce’ for the deluded; it warns that adharma turns sacred thresholds (death rites) into exploitation.
Ethical-narrative (ākhyāna) material used to evoke disgust and discrimination between dharma and adharma; not a pañcalakṣaṇa category passage.
‘Price of the corpse’ can symbolize the ego’s bargaining with impermanence—trying to extract gain from what is intrinsically transient.