Markandeya Purana — Adhyaya 14, Shloka 80
Adhyaya 14 — The Messenger of Yama Explains Karmic Retribution and the Causes of Naraka Torments
परस्परञ्च मांसानि भक्ष्यन्ति क्षुधान्विताः ।
भुक्तं नातिथ्यविधिना पूर्वमेभैः परस्परम् ॥
parasparaṃ ca māṃsāni bhakṣyanti kṣudhānvitāḥ | bhuktaṃ nātithya-vidhinā pūrvam ebhaiḥ parasparam ||
ಹಸಿವಿನಿಂದ ಪೀಡಿತರಾಗಿ ಅವರು ಪರಸ್ಪರರ ಮಾಂಸವನ್ನು ಭಕ್ಷಿಸುತ್ತಾರೆ; ಏಕೆಂದರೆ ಹಿಂದೆ ಅತಿಥಿ-ಸತ್ಕಾರದ ನಿಯಮವನ್ನು ಪಾಲಿಸದೆ, ಒಬ್ಬರನ್ನೊಬ್ಬರು ನಿರ್ಲಕ್ಷಿಸಿ ಭೋಜನ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಿದ್ದರು।
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FAQs
Refusing due hospitality collapses social trust; the text frames it as a betrayal of reciprocity. The punishment mirrors the offense: those who would not share food become food for one another.
Didactic dharma-kathana (ethical instruction) and karmaphala; ancillary to the Purana’s broader aims rather than a direct Sarga/Pratisarga/Manvantara/Vaṃśa account.
Food symbolizes yajña and social circulation of merit; hoarding/denying it turns the ‘sacrificial’ into the ‘predatory,’ depicting a world where consumption loses sacred order and becomes mutual destruction.