Shloka 11
Adhyaya 8 — Harishchandra’s Trial: Truth, the Sale of Family, and Bondage to a Chandala
विश्वामित्र उवाच एवमस्तु महाराज आगमिष्याम्यहं पुनः ।
शापं तव प्रदास्यामि न चेदद्य प्रदास्यसि ॥
viśvāmitra uvāca evam astu mahārāja āgamiṣyāmy ahaṃ punaḥ | śāpaṃ tava pradāsyāmi na ced adya pradāsyasi ||
വിശ്വാമിത്രൻ പറഞ്ഞു—തഥാസ്തു, മഹാരാജാ. ഞാൻ വീണ്ടും വരാം. ഇന്ന് നീ നൽകുന്നില്ലെങ്കിൽ, ഞാൻ നിന്നെ ശപിക്കും.
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FAQs
The verse stresses the binding moral weight of a righteous request from a realized sage and the king’s duty to respond without procrastination. Delay or refusal in a dharmic obligation—especially involving dāna or fulfillment of a pledged act—invites consequences, here expressed as the threat of śāpa (a punitive spiritual sanction).
This verse is primarily narrative-ethical instruction rather than cosmological enumeration. It aligns most closely with Vaṃśānucarita/Carita (accounts within royal-sage stories used to teach dharma), not with Sarga/Pratisarga/Manvantara/Vaṃśa as a direct doctrinal listing.
Esoterically, the ‘curse’ functions as the karmic recoil of obstructed dharma: when rightful giving is withheld, the obstruction crystallizes into a binding consequence. The sage’s return (‘I shall come again’) also symbolizes that unresolved obligations reappear until discharged; time does not dissolve dharma-debt, it matures it.