Adhyāya 283: Varṇa-vṛtti, Nyāya-ārjana, and the Decline-and-Restoration of Dharma (वर्णवृत्तिः न्यायार्जनं च)
ते निपेतुस्ततस्तूर्ण दक्षयज्ञविहिंसया । भीमरूपा महाकाया: शतशो5थ सहसत्रश:
te nipetustatas tūrṇaṁ dakṣayajñavihiṁsayā | bhīmarūpā mahākāyāḥ śataśo 'tha sahasraśaḥ ||
પછી દક્ષના યજ્ઞનો વિનાશ થતો જ તેઓ તરત જ તૂટી પડ્યા—ભયંકર રૂપવાળા, મહાકાય—પહેલાં સૈકડાઓમાં અને પછી હજારોમાં.
दक्ष उवाच
The verse highlights how violence and disruption—especially around sacred or socially binding institutions like yajña—can rapidly multiply into large-scale chaos. It implicitly warns that ritual without humility and ethical restraint becomes vulnerable to collapse and harm.
Dakṣa describes a sudden mass descent/fall of terrifying, gigantic beings amid the violent disruption of Dakṣa’s sacrifice, emphasizing the scale and immediacy of the calamity—hundreds, then thousands.