Shloka 91
Adhyaya 8 — Harishchandra’s Trial: Truth, the Sale of Family, and Bondage to a Chandala
विश्वामित्र उवाच यदि चाण्डालवित्तं त्वमात्मविक्रयजं मम ।
न प्रदास्यसि कालेन शाप्स्यामि त्वामसंशयम् ॥
viśvāmitra uvāca yadi caṇḍālavittaṃ tvam ātma-vikrayajaṃ mama |
na pradāsyasi kālena śāpsyāmi tvām asaṃśayam ||
Viśvāmitra berkata: “Jika engkau tidak menyerahkan kepadaku, pada waktunya, harta seorang caṇḍāla—harta yang lahir daripada menjual diri—maka pasti aku akan menyumpah engkau.”
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FAQs
The verse foregrounds the tension between dharma and power: even a revered ṛṣi can deploy spiritual potency coercively. It implicitly warns that wealth and giving are ethically conditioned—dāna loses purity when compelled by fear, and wealth linked with degradation (ātma-vikraya, ‘self-sale’) carries moral stigma in classical dharma discourse.
Primarily within Vaṃśānucarita/Carita (narrative of persons and events) rather than sarga/pratisarga/manvantara/vaṃśa proper. It is an ethical-narrative illustration used by the Purāṇa to teach dharma through story.
Symbolically, ‘caṇḍāla-wealth’ and ‘self-sale’ can represent the soul’s loss of sovereignty when it ‘sells’ itself to desire or fear. The threatened curse dramatizes how inner compulsion (fear of consequence) can drive action; the higher teaching is to act from discernment and right order (kāla), not from coercion.