Shloka 14
Draupadī’s Instruction on Marital Conduct and Household Discipline (चित्तग्रहण-उपदेश)
पूयात् स गन्ध॑ तेजश्न अस्थिभ्यो देवदारु च । श्लेष्मण: स्फाटिकं तस्य पित्तान्मारकतं तथा,“सह” नामक अग्निने अपने पीब तथा रक्तसे गन्धक एवं तैजस धातुओंको उत्पन्न किया। उनकी हडियोंसे देवदारुके वृक्ष प्रकट हुए। कफसे स्फटिक तथा पित्तसे मरकतमणिका प्रादुर्भाव हुआ
pūyāt sa gandhaḥ tejaś ca asthibhyo devadāru ca | śleṣmaṇaḥ sphāṭikaṃ tasya pittān mārakataṃ tathā ||
Mārkaṇḍeya said: From his pus arose sulphur and fiery substances; from his bones sprang the deodar trees. From his phlegm came crystal, and from his bile likewise emerged the emerald. The passage presents a mythic account of how even what is impure in a being can, through cosmic transformation, become sources of valuable substances in the world—suggesting an ethical vision in which creation reorders and redeems what is otherwise repellent.
मार्कण्डेय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse conveys an etiological and ethical idea: the cosmos can transform even impure bodily elements into beneficial and precious forms (trees, minerals, gems). It hints at a worldview where creation integrates all aspects of existence, converting what seems base into something valuable within the larger order.
Mārkaṇḍeya describes the emergence of various natural substances from a being’s bodily constituents: pus yields sulphur and fiery matter, bones yield deodar trees, phlegm yields crystal, and bile yields emerald. It functions as a mythic explanation for the origins of these materials.