Varaha Purana 165.1: Adhyaya 165, Shloka 1
The Glory of Mathurā: The Account of Piṇḍa-Offering at the Catuḥsāmudrika Well
Pūrva Bhāga · Narrative Ethics (Householder Conduct; Neglect of Dharma)
श्रीवराह उवाच ॥ अतः परं प्रवक्ष्यामि तच्छृणुष्व वसुन्धरे ॥ यथावृत्तं प्रतिष्ठाने दक्षिणापथमण्डले ॥
śrīvarāha uvāca || ataḥ paraṃ pravakṣyāmi tac chṛṇuṣva vasundhare || yathāvṛttaṃ pratiṣṭhāne dakṣiṇāpathamaṇḍale ||
shrIvarAha uvAcha || ataH paraM pravakShyAmi tachChRRiNuShva vasundhare || yathAvRRittaM pratiShThAne dakShiNApathamaNDale
वराह भगवान बोले, अब मैं और भी बताता हूँ, ध्यान से सुन। यह बात प्रतिष्ठान की है जो दक्षिण पथ में है। मैं बताता हूँ वहाँ क्या हुआ था।
Sandhi Notes
- तच्छृणुष्व = तत् + शृणुष्व
Varāha
Attentive/curious listener; receptive to instruction
Implicit: ‘What happened at Pratiṣṭhāna in Dakṣiṇāpatha, and what dharmic lesson does it convey?’
Dharma is transmitted through attentive śravaṇa (listening) and through accounts rooted in sacred geography.
Cultivate dharma-śravaṇa: regularly hear purāṇic/dharmic teachings and treat sacred places as prompts for ethical self-audit.
Varāha addresses Vasundharā directly, instructing her to listen as he begins a narrative about a southern-region site (Pratiṣṭhāna).
Varāha–Bhū dialogue framework recurring across the Purāṇa; Dakṣiṇāpatha/Pratiṣṭhāna narrative unit continues in subsequent verses
FAQs
It provides a narrative colophon-style transition into an exemplum set in a named locale, a common Purāṇic method for embedding ethical instruction within geographic memory.
Pratiṣṭhāna is named, situated within Dakṣiṇāpatha; multiple historical identifications exist in scholarship, but the excerpt alone does not disambiguate which is intended.
The verse establishes attentive listening and transmission of an instructive narrative as the pedagogical mode of the Varāha–Earth dialogue.
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