Varaha Purana 174.38: Adhyaya 174, Shloka 38
The Sanctifying Power of River Confluences: Release from the Preta-State and the Rite of Śravaṇa Dvādaśī with Vāmana Worship
Uttara Bhāga · Dharma-śāstra / Pretatva (ethical causes of becoming a preta)
प्रेतस्तु जायते केन तद्वद त्वं महामुने ॥ विप्र उवाच ॥ शूद्रान्नेन तु भुक्तेन ब्राह्मणो म्रियते यदि ॥
pretas tu jāyate kena tad vada tvaṃ mahā-mune || vipra uvāca || śūdrānnena tu bhuktena brāhmaṇo mriyate yadi
pretastu jAyate kena tadvada tvaM mahAmune || vipra uvAcha || shUdrAnnena tu bhuktena brAhmaNo mriyate yadi
प्रेत ने पूछा, बड़ा ऋषि, बताओ तो सही कि आदमी प्रेत कैसे बनता है। ब्राह्मण ने कहा, अगर कोई ब्राह्मण शूद्र के हाथ का खाना खाके मर जाए।
Sandhi Notes
- tad vada = tat + vada (final t before v often written as d in transliteration)
- śūdrānnena = śūdra-annena (a+a→ā)
Vipra
By what specific act does one become a preta (what is the causal transgression)?
Post-mortem outcomes are linked to embodied acts (especially food/saṅga) at the time of death.
Exercise vigilance about food sources and purity norms as defined within the text’s dharma framework.
A Brahmin who dies after consuming Śūdra-provided/Śūdra-associated food is stated to incur preta-birth (text-internal purity rule).
Such death with the impurity-cause operative leads to preta-state; implied need for avoidance/purificatory discipline.
Varaha Purana 174.43-45 (extension from food to association and conduct)
FAQs
It documents a premodern purity-ethics register found across Dharma literature, useful for historians studying social-religious norms as represented in Purāṇic texts.
No geographic location is mentioned.
The passage frames dietary conduct and social-ritual boundaries as consequential for one’s post-mortem condition (as stated within the text’s normative system).
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