Varaha Purana 21.28: Adhyaya 21, Shloka 28
The Disruption of Dakṣa’s Sacrifice, the Hari-Hara Conflict, and the Establishment of Rudra’s Sacrificial Share
Pūrva Bhāga · Pr̥thivī-uddhāra / Narrative of ominous manifestations
तस्य नानदतो ज्वालाः श्रोत्रेभ्यो निर्ययुस्तदा । तत्र भूतानि वेतालाः उच्छ्रुष्माः प्रेतपूतनाः ॥ २१.२९ ॥
tasya nānadato jvālāḥ śrotrebhyo niryayus tadā | tatra bhūtāni vetālā ucchruṣmāḥ pretapūtanāḥ || 21.29 ||
tasya nAnadato jvAlAH shrotrebhyo niryayustadA | tatra bhUtAni vetAlA uchChruShmAH pretapUtanAH || 21.29 ||
जब वो चिल्लाया, तो उसके कानों से आग निकली। वहाँ भूत, वेताल और प्रेत पैदा हो गए। पूतना भी वहाँ आ गई।
Sandhi Notes
- नानदतो = ननदतः (reduplication/perfect stem used as participial base in some recensions)
- प्रेतपूतनाः treated as द्वन्द्व (preta + pūtanā)
Varāha
From divine energy, multiple orders of beings arise, including fearsome liminal entities—indicating a graded cosmos where even the frightening has a place and function.
Maintain purity of speech and mind; avoid tamasic habits that ‘invite’ preta-like states; seek sattva through mantra, charity, and restraint.
Flames from the ears externalize the Lord’s śabda-śakti: sound (roar) becomes fire (tejas), and from that tejas arise liminal beings—suggesting that uncontrolled or shadowed energies at creation’s edge manifest as preta/bhūta classes.
Ears as receptacles of śruti; when the cosmic ‘hearing’ turns into blazing tejas, it resembles sacrificial fire kindled by mantra—yet here it births inauspicious retinues, like impurities expelled at the rite’s boundary.
Maps the emergence of tamasic/rajasik forces within prakṛti’s unfolding under īśvara’s supervision; even ‘dark’ beings are contained within the cosmic order, not outside it.
Continuation into the mass uprising of kūṣmāṇḍas and yātudhānas (21.21.30)
FAQs
It exemplifies a Purāṇic narrative technique: cataloging classes of supernatural beings to mark an ominous or liminal moment, a feature common in early medieval Sanskrit literature and its mythic cosmology.
No explicit geographic toponym appears in this verse; it describes a scene of manifestation (“there”) without naming a specific site.
The verse is primarily descriptive rather than prescriptive; it conveys an atmosphere of danger or cosmic disturbance through imagery and enumerated beings, without stating a direct ethical injunction.
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