Vamana Purana — Prahlada's Pilgrimage, Shloka 8

Prahlada’s Pilgrimage and the Origin of the Sudarshana–Trishula Exchange (Jalodbhava Episode)

Devanagari script

हनू द्वे वारुणश्चोक्तो नासा पैत्र उदाहृतः मृगशीर्षं नयनयो रूपधारिणि तिष्ठति

Transliteration

hanū dve vāruṇaścokto nāsā paitra udāhṛtaḥ mṛgaśīrṣaṃ nayanayo rūpadhāriṇi tiṣṭhati

Translation

Dua rahang disebut ‘Vāruṇa’; hidung dinyatakan sebagai ‘Paitra’. ‘Mṛgaśīrṣa’ berdiam pada kedua mata Sang Pemilik Wujud.

Speakers

• Not specified in the provided excerpt (didactic cosmological description).

Primary Deities

• Vishnu (implicit as cosmic person in Purāṇic cosmology)
• Varuna (invoked by epithet Vāruṇa)
• Pitrs (ancestral beings, invoked by epithet Paitra)

Key Themes

• Cosmic person doctrine
• Integration of deva/ancestral categories into cosmology
• Nakṣatra symbolism

Verse Rasa (Emotional Flavour)

{ "primaryRasa": "adbhuta", "secondaryRasa": "shanta", "rasaIntensity": 0, "emotionalArcPosition": "", "moodDescriptors": [] }

FAQs

What do ‘Vāruṇa’ and ‘Paitra’ mean here—are they nakṣatras or adjectives?

In this style of passage, such terms function as identifiers within a nakṣatra-body mapping. ‘Vāruṇa’ (‘of Varuṇa’) and ‘Paitra’ (‘ancestral’) likely denote traditional associations (deity/lineage/quality) used to label the corresponding bodily locus, even when the term is not itself a primary nakṣatra-name like Mṛgaśīrṣa.

Why is Mṛgaśīrṣa placed in the eyes?

Mṛgaśīrṣa (‘deer’s head’) is rich in visual symbolism—alertness, searching, and swift perception. Assigning it to the eyes aligns the nakṣatra’s imagery with the faculty of sight.

Does ‘rūpadhārin’ imply a specific figure?

It can simply mean ‘the embodied one’ or ‘the one who bears form’—a generic cosmic-person reference. Without surrounding verses, it is safest to read it as the universal form used for cosmological instruction rather than a named avatāra.