Shloka 36

Indra's Campaign on Mount Malaya — Indra’s Campaign on Mount Malaya and the Birth of the Maruts (Origin of the Epithet Gotrabhid)

Devanagari script

शक्रो ऽपि प्राह मा मूढ रुदस्वेति सुघर्घरम् इत्येवमुक्त्वा चैकैकं भूयश्चिच्छेद सप्तधा

Transliteration

śakro 'pi prāha mā mūḍha rudasveti sughargharam ityevamuktvā caikaikaṃ bhūyaściccheda saptadhā

Translation

ശക്രൻ (ഇന്ദ്രൻ) അത്യന്തം കഠിനമായ ശബ്ദത്തിൽ—“ഹേ മൂഢാ, കരയുക!” എന്നു പറഞ്ഞു. ഇങ്ങനെ പറഞ്ഞിട്ട് അവൻ വീണ്ടും ഓരോന്നെയും ഏഴായി വെട്ടിപ്പിരിച്ചു.

Speakers

• Narrator (Purāṇic narrator) describing Indra’s actions; implied address to the listening sage/audience

Primary Deities

• Indra (Śakra)

Key Themes

• Etiology of the Maruts
• Indra’s fear of rivals
• Violence within mythic cosmology
• Karma/āpacāra (offense) and its consequences

Verse Rasa (Emotional Flavour)

{ "primaryRasa": "raudra", "secondaryRasa": "bibhatsa", "rasaIntensity": 0, "emotionalArcPosition": "", "moodDescriptors": [] }

FAQs

What is Indra commanding with “rudasva” (“cry!”), and why?

In the Diti–Marut myth, Indra attacks the embryo(s) in Diti’s womb. The command “cry!” functions as a narrative marker: once the beings cry out, they are characterized as “Marut” (often linked to the root *ru(d)*, “to cry/roar”), and their identity shifts from potential adversaries to a class of storm-deities.

Why does the verse emphasize “each one” being cut “into seven parts”?

The repeated splitting explains the multiplication of beings and provides an origin-story for the Marut hosts. Purāṇic accounts vary in numbers, but the motif of repeated division is a standard etiological device to generate a divine troop from a single womb.

Is there any tīrtha or geographic setting implied here?

Not in these lines. This segment is mythic-etiological rather than a tīrtha-mahātmya; no rivers, forests, or pilgrimage sites are named in the given verses.