Varaha Purana 53.3: Adhyaya 53, Shloka 3

The Origin Account of Saptamūrti Svara and the Emergence of Saṃbhūti through Vibhūti

Devanagari script

तस्यां सम्भूतिमिच्छन् यस्तस्योपायं स्वयं परम् । पशुपालात् समुत्पन्नो यश्चतुष्पाच्चतुर्मुखः ॥ ५३.३ ॥

Recitation with translationVaraha Purana 53.3

Transliteration

tasyāṃ saṃbhūtim icchan yas tasyopāyaṃ svayaṃ param | paśupālāt samutpanno yaś catuṣpāc caturmukhaḥ || 53.3 ||

Translation

അവളിൽ (ഭൂമിയിൽ) പ്രത്യക്ഷപ്പെടാൻ ആഗ്രഹിച്ചവൻ, ആ പ്രത്യക്ഷതയ്ക്കു താനേ പരമോപായമായി. അവൻ ഒരു പശുപാലനിൽ നിന്നു ഉദ്ഭവിച്ചു; ചതുഷ്പാദനായിട്ടും ചതുര്മുഖനായി മാറി.

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Word by Word

• tasyām: in her (locative, fem.)

• saṃbhūtim: manifestation/origin

• icchan: desiring

• yaḥ: who

• tasya: of that/for that

• upāyam: means/method

• svayam: himself

• param: supreme

• paśupālāt: from a cowherd/cattle-herder

• samutpannaḥ: arisen/produced

• yaḥ: who

• catuṣpāt: four-footed

• caturmukhaḥ: four-faced

Speaker

Varāha (default dialogue framework; speaker not explicit in excerpt)

Tags

• Classical Literature
• Purāṇic Studies
• Vaiṣṇavism
• Sanskrit Philology

FAQs

What is the historical significance of this verse?

It preserves a compact Purāṇic-style etiological formula linking manifestation (saṃbhūti) with symbolic bodily markers (e.g., four-faced), a common technique used to encode cosmological and genealogical ideas in early medieval Sanskrit narrative traditions.

Which geographic location is identified?

No explicit geographic toponym appears in this verse; it is framed as a cosmological/genealogical statement rather than a site-specific (tīrtha) description.

What is the primary ethical instruction?

The verse is primarily descriptive rather than prescriptive; its philosophical emphasis is on causality and manifestation—how agency and ‘means’ (upāya) are narrated as integral to cosmic emergence.