Vamana Purana — Nakshatra-Purusha Vrata, Shloka 23

The Nakshatra-Purusha Vrata: Worship of Vishnu’s Body as the Constellations

Devanagari script

ततः प्रेताधिपतिना पृष्टः स तु वणिक्सखः कुत आगम्यते ब्रूहि क्व साधो वा गमिष्यसि

Transliteration

tataḥ pretādhipatinā pṛṣṭaḥ sa tu vaṇiksakhaḥ kuta āgamyate brūhi kva sādho vā gamiṣyasi

Translation

मग प्रेताधिपतीने त्या वणिकाच्या सख्यास विचारले—“तू कुठून आला आहेस? सांग. आणि हे साधु, तू कुठे जाणार आहेस?”

Speakers

• Pretādhipati (lord of pretas) to the merchant’s companion (vaṇik-sakha).

Primary Deities

• Pretādhipati (Yama-like lord of the departed)

Key Themes

• Interrogation at a liminal threshold (life/death)
• Travel and destiny
• Moral characterization (sādhu)

Verse Rasa (Emotional Flavour)

{ "primaryRasa": "adbhuta", "secondaryRasa": "bhayanaka", "rasaIntensity": 0, "emotionalArcPosition": "", "moodDescriptors": [] }

FAQs

Who is the ‘pretādhipati’ here—Yama or another being?

The term literally means ‘lord of the pretas (departed spirits)’. In Purāṇic narrative it often functions as a Yama-like authority who questions travelers or souls at a boundary-space. The verse itself does not name Yama explicitly, so the safest reading is a generic ruler of the departed.

Why is the merchant’s companion addressed as ‘sādho’ (good man) in an interrogation?

‘Sādho’ can be both respectful address and moral descriptor. In such dialogues it signals that the speaker is eliciting truthful self-disclosure and frames the exchange as ethically charged rather than merely hostile.

Does this verse contain any tīrtha-geography data?

Not directly. It sets up a travel-question (‘from where/where to’), which typically precedes disclosure of routes, forests, or tīrthas in subsequent verses, but no proper place-name appears here.