Shloka 60
Adhyaya 8 — Harishchandra’s Trial: Truth, the Sale of Family, and Bondage to a Chandala
पश्यैहि वत्स मामेवं मातरं दास्यतां गताम् ।
मां मा स्प्रार्क्षो राजपुत्र ! अस्पृश्याहं तवाधुना ॥
paśyaihi vatsa māmevaṃ mātaraṃ dāsyatāṃ gatām | māṃ mā sprārkṣo rājaputra! aspṛśyāhaṃ tavādhunā ||
「見なさい、愛しい子よ、わたしを——おまえの母を——侍女の身にまで落とされたこの姿を。王子よ、わたしに触れてはなりません。いまのわたしは、おまえにとって触れてはならぬ者なのです。」
FAQs
The verse dramatizes how misfortune can invert social standing and how dharma may require restraint even in intimate bonds. The mother’s command ‘do not touch’ reflects a perceived duty to uphold prevailing notions of ritual/social boundary, while also evoking compassion for those reduced to hardship.
This is not a pancalakṣaṇa (Sarga/Pratisarga/Vaṃśa/Manvantara/Vaṃśānucarita) datum. It belongs to the narrative/ethical instruction layer embedded in the Purāṇa—specifically the Devī Māhātmya episode—rather than cosmology or genealogy.
On a symbolic level, ‘untouchability’ can be read as the soul’s alienation under duḥkha and social conditioning: even love becomes constrained by fear of impurity. Within Devī Māhātmya’s broader arc, such suffering intensifies the need for refuge in Devī, who transcends and ultimately resolves worldly limitations.