Varaha Purana 137.142: Adhyaya 137, Shloka 142
The Tale of the Vulture and the She-Jackal: The Māhātmya of the Saukarava Sacred Field
प्रवृत्ते चान्धकारे तु यत्र कश्चिन्न दृश्यते॥ सोमेन च विना भूमिर्दृश्यते चन्द्रसप्रभा॥
pravṛtte cāndhakāre tu yatra kaścin na dṛśyate || somena ca vinā bhūmir dṛśyate candrasaprabhā ||
जब अंधेरा हो जाता है, कुछ भी नहीं दिखता। लेकिन धरती दिखती है, और उसकी चमक चाँद जैसी है। चाँद बिना भी ऐसा लग रहा है जैसे चाँद हो।
Varāha (default speaker framework; explicit speaker not given in this pāda)
FAQs
It exemplifies a common Purāṇic narrative technique: describing extraordinary sensory phenomena to mark a landscape as culturally significant (kṣetra/tīrtha), aiding the text’s function as a geo-cultural archive.
No explicit toponym appears in this fragment; it functions as a descriptive preface to a site-specific marvel that is named later in the surrounding verses.
Implicitly, it promotes attentiveness to culturally valued landscapes by framing them as worthy of observation, memory, and preservation.
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