Shloka 37
Dharma-vyādha’s Analysis of Moral Decline and the Mahābhūta–Guṇa Schema (धर्मव्याधोपदेशः)
अन्नमेव विशिष्ट हि तस्मात् परतरं न च,अतः अन्न ही सबसे महत्त्वकी वस्तु है। उससे बढ़कर दूसरी कोई वस्तु नहीं है। वेदोंमें अन्नको प्रजापति कहा गया है। प्रजापति संवत्सर माना गया है। संवत्सर यज्ञरूप है और यज्ञमें सबकी स्थिति है
annam eva viśiṣṭaṁ hi tasmāt parataraṁ na ca | ataḥ annaṁ hi sarvebhyaḥ mahatvākī vastuḥ | tasmād bṛhataraṁ dvitīyā kācid vastuḥ na vidyate | vedeṣu annaṁ prajāpatiḥ iti ucyate | prajāpatiḥ saṁvatsaraḥ mataḥ | saṁvatsaraḥ yajñarūpaḥ, yajñe ca sarvasya sthitiḥ |
マールカンデーヤは言った。「食こそが真に卓越しており、これに勝るものはない。ゆえに食は万物のうち最も重要であり、これより大いなる第二のものは存在しない。ヴェーダにおいて食はプラジャーパティ（Prajāpati）と説かれ、プラジャーパティは年（サンヴァツァラ）であると理解される。その年は祭祀（ヤジュニャ）の性質を帯び、祭祀のうちにこそ、あらゆる生きものの安寧と安定が打ち立てられる。」
मार्कण्डेय उवाच
Educational Q&A
Food (anna) is presented as the highest practical and sacred support of life. By linking anna with Prajāpati, the Year (saṁvatsara), and sacrifice (yajña), the verse teaches that sustenance, time, and sacrificial duty form a single ethical-cosmic framework: life is maintained through orderly giving, reciprocity, and reverence for the sources of nourishment.
Mārkaṇḍeya is instructing his listeners by elevating the status of food from mere material necessity to a Vedic principle. He explains a chain of identifications—food as Prajāpati, Prajāpati as the Year, the Year as sacrifice—to show that the stability of all beings rests upon the sacrificial order that sustains nourishment and life.