Shloka 185
Adhyaya 8 — Harishchandra’s Trial: Truth, the Sale of Family, and Bondage to a Chandala
कष्टं शैव्येयमेषा हि स बालोऽयमितीरयन् ।
रुरोद दुःखसंतप्तो मूर्च्छामभिजगाम च ॥
kaṣṭaṃ śaivyeyam eṣā hi sa bālo 'yam itīrayan | ruroda duḥkha-santapto mūrcchām abhijagāma ca ||
Sambil berseru, “Aduhai! Inilah benar-benar Śaivya, dan inilah budak itu!”, baginda menangis, dibakar oleh dukacita, lalu rebah pengsan pula.
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FAQs
The king’s cry shows how identity clings to relational markers (‘my queen’, ‘my child’). Purāṇic ethics does not deny grief, but uses it to press the question: what is stable when all possessions and relations are vulnerable to time and fate?
Ākhyāna (narrative) used as a didactic device; it prepares the ground for later instruction rather than presenting cosmology or genealogy.
The fainting (mūrcchā) can be read as prāṇa and mind withdrawing under shock—an image of how unassimilated suffering ‘eclipses’ awareness, contrasting with the later ideal of steady witnessing (sākṣitva).