Markandeya Purana — Adhyaya 8, Shloka 171
Adhyaya 8 — Harishchandra’s Trial: Truth, the Sale of Family, and Bondage to a Chandala
अथाजगाम स्वसुतं मृतमादाय लापिनी ।
भार्या तस्य नरेन्द्रस्य सर्पदष्टं हि बालकम् ॥
athājagāma svasutaṃ mṛtam ādāya lāpinī / bhāryā tasya narendrasya sarpadaṣṭaṃ hi bālakam
तब उस राजा की पत्नी विलाप करती हुई आई, अपने ही पुत्र को उठाए हुए—साँप के काटने से वह बालक निश्चय ही मर चुका था।
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FAQs
The piling of misfortunes (loss of kingdom, then loss of child) dramatizes duḥkha’s unpredictability and intensifies the text’s push toward refuge, compassion, and a broader-than-personal understanding of fate and dharma.
Carita: a family-episode used for moral instruction; not sarga/pratisarga/manvantara/vaṃśa listing.
Snakebite often symbolizes sudden karmic fruition and the ‘sting’ of time; the mother bearing the dead child into the śmaśāna space externalizes the inner confrontation with mortality.