Varaha Purana 196.2 — Adhyaya 196, Shloka 2
Description of the City of Dharmarāja
Yama
नाचिकेत उवाच ॥ श्रूयतां द्विजशार्दूलाः कथ्यमानं मया द्विजाः ॥ योजनानां सहस्रं तु विस्ताराद्द्विगुणायतम् ॥
nāciketa uvāca || śrūyatāṁ dvijaśārdūlāḥ kathyamānaṁ mayā dvijāḥ || yojanānāṁ sahasraṁ tu vistārād dviguṇāyatam
នាចិកេតៈបាននិយាយថា៖ «សូមស្តាប់ចុះ ឱ ទ្វិជសារទូលទាំងឡាយ ឱ ទ្វិជទាំងឡាយ ខ្ញុំនឹងពិពណ៌នា។ ទទឹងរបស់វា មានមួយពាន់យោជនៈ ហើយបណ្តោយមានទ្វេគុណនៃនោះ»។
Nāciketa
Varaha Avatara Context: {"is_varaha_focus":false,"aspect_highlighted":"None","boar_form_detail":"None","earth_interaction":"None"}
Bhu Devi Dialogue: {"is_dialogue":true,"speaker_role":"instructor","bhu_devi_state":"None","key_question":"None"}
Mathura Mandala: {"is_mathura_related":false,"specific_site":"None","parikrama_context":"None","krishna_connection":"None"}
Dharma Shastra: {"has_dharma_rule":false,"topic":"None","instruction_summary":"None","karmic_consequence":"None"}
Vrata Mahatmya: {"has_vrata":false,"vrata_name":"None","tithi_month":"None","promised_fruit":"None"}
Cosmic Boar Symbolism: {"has_symbolism":false,"symbolic_interpretation":"None","yajna_varaha_imagery":"None","vedantic_connection":"None"}
Philosophical Teaching: {"has_teaching":true,"teaching_type":"cosmological order (niyati)","core_concept":"Even the afterlife realm is portrayed as structured and proportioned, implying moral-cosmic governance rather than chaos.","practical_application":"Cultivate dharma with the awareness that post-mortem experience is not random but governed by an intelligible order."}
Subject Matter: ["Cosmology","Mythic geography","Measurement systems"]
Primary Rasa: adbhuta
Secondary Rasa: shanta
Type: mythic city / afterlife geography
Related Themes: Varāha Purāṇa: Yama-loka / preta-pura descriptive sequence (immediate continuation in 196.3–196.6)
Visual Art Cues: {"scene_description":"Nāciketa addressing an assembly of learned twice-born, beginning a precise measurement-based description of Yama’s city—breadth and length stated like a surveyor of the otherworld.","item_prompts":["Nāciketa as youthful sage","seated/standing before brāhmaṇas","gesture of instruction (vyākhyāna-mudrā)","scroll/palm-leaf or measuring cord motif","suggestion of distant golden city-plan/map"],"kerala_mural_prompt":"Kerala mural style: youthful Nāciketa with calm face, large expressive eyes, ochre-green palette; brāhmaṇa audience in rows; faint schematic of a vast city behind, rendered as stylized concentric rectangles.","tanjore_prompt":"Tanjore style: central Nāciketa with ornate halo; gold-leaf accents on a stylized city-outline and measurement bands; brāhmaṇas flanking symmetrically.","mysore_prompt":"Mysore style: refined linework, soft shading; Nāciketa teaching with a palm-leaf manuscript; subtle architectural plan in background.","pahari_prompt":"Pahari style: hillside-like layered composition; Nāciketa in foreground teaching; background shows a distant, idealized city rectangle with measured proportions."}
Audio Atmosphere: {"recitation_mood":"didactic-awe","suggested_raga":"Shankarabharanam","pace":"medium","voice_tone":"clear, declarative, slightly elevated on numeric phrases"}
FAQs
It illustrates Purāṇic use of metrological language (yojana) to render cosmographic descriptions vivid and systematic.
The passage describes Dharmarāja’s (Yama’s) city as a mythic/otherworldly space rather than a historically mappable terrestrial location.
Indirectly, it prepares an imaginative setting for moral consequence narratives by describing the realm associated with judgment and order (dharma).
Ask anything about this verse
Curious about the meaning, context, or a word? Ask, and continue the conversation in the Vedapath app.
A free Google sign-in keeps your chat saved across web and the app.
Read Varaha Purana in the Vedapath app
Scan the QR code to open this directly in the app, with audio, word-by-word meanings, and more.