Shloka 15

उत्तङ्कोपाख्यानप्रारम्भः — Uttanka’s Tapas, Viṣṇu-stuti, and the Dhundhumāra Prophecy

Opening

Devanagari script

पश्चिमे युगकाले च य: स ते सम्प्रकीर्तित: । सर्वलोकस्य विदिता युगसंख्या च पाण्डव,धर्मका यह स्वरूप सत्ययुगमें अक्षुण्ण रहेगा। त्रेता, द्वापर तथा कलियुगमें धर्मकी जैसी स्थिति रहेगी, उसका वर्णन तुमसे किया जा चुका है। पाण्डुनन्दन! तुम्हें सम्पूर्ण लोककी युग-संख्याका ज्ञान भी हो चुका है

Transliteration

paścime yugakāle ca yaḥ sa te samprakīrtitaḥ | sarvalokasya viditā yugasaṅkhyā ca pāṇḍava ||

Translation

മാർക്കണ്ഡേയൻ പറഞ്ഞു—യുഗത്തിന്റെ അന്തിമകാലത്ത് പ്രത്യക്ഷപ്പെടുന്നവൻ ആരെന്നതും നിനക്കു യഥാവിധി വിവരിച്ചിരിക്കുന്നു. ഹേ പാണ്ഡവാ, സർവ്വലോകം അംഗീകരിക്കുന്ന യുഗഗണനയും നിനക്കു അറിയപ്പെട്ടു।

Word by Word

[{'term''paścime', 'gloss': 'in the last

at the end (locative sense)'}, {'term''yugakāle', 'gloss': 'at the time of a yuga

in the age-period'}, {'term''yaḥ', 'gloss': 'who

which (relative pronoun)'}, {'term''saḥ', 'gloss': 'he

that one (correlative pronoun)'}, {'term''te', 'gloss': 'to you

for you'}, {'term''samprakīrtitaḥ', 'gloss': 'fully declared

duly described'}, {'term''sarvalokasya', 'gloss': 'of all the worlds/people

universally'}, {'term''viditā', 'gloss': 'known

understood'}, {'term''yugasaṅkhyā', 'gloss': 'the count/measure of the yugas

yuga chronology'}, {'term''pāṇḍava', 'gloss': 'O son of Pāṇḍu (address to Yudhiṣṭhira)'}]

Speaker

मार्कण्डेय उवाच

Characters & Entities

Mārkaṇḍeya

Pāṇḍava (Yudhiṣṭhira)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Cross References

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse underscores that dharma and human conduct are to be understood against the backdrop of cosmic time: the yugas have a recognized order and measure, and knowledge of this cycle helps interpret how righteousness changes and declines across ages.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sage Mārkaṇḍeya, speaking to Yudhiṣṭhira in the forest, concludes a section of instruction by noting that he has already described the figure associated with the end of an age and that Yudhiṣṭhira has now learned the universally accepted chronology (yuga-count) as well.