Varaha Purana 136.3: Adhyaya 136, Shloka 3
A Sūtra-like Manual of Expiations for Ritual Transgressions
Uttara Bhāga · Prāyaścitta-karmasūtra (Social Consequence and Rebirth Motif)
चाण्डालस्य गृहे तत्र एवमेतन्न संशयः ॥ एवं भुक्त्वा तु तत्कर्म मम क्षेत्रे मृतो यदि
cāṇḍālasya gṛhe tatra evam etan na saṁśayaḥ | evaṁ bhuktvā tu tat karma mama kṣetre mṛto yadi ||
chANDAlasya gRRihe tatra evametanna saMshayaH || evaM bhuktvA tu tatkarma mama kShetre mRRito yadi
Di sana ia dilahirkan di rumah seorang caṇḍāla—demikianlah adanya, tanpa syak. Dan jika setelah menanggung akibat perbuatan itu, ia mati di kṣetra-Ku (wilayah suci-Ku), maka…
Varāha
Sacred geography mediates divine compassion: place can become a conduit for purification and future bhakti.
Seek residence, pilgrimage, or final remembrance in a Vaiṣṇava kṣetra; combine with repentance and devotion rather than relying on place alone.
Implicit continuation of instruction to Bhū-devī; introduces ‘my sacred domain’ (mama kṣetra) as spiritually decisive.
Kṣetra functions as ‘embodied grace’: even when karma yields low birth, contact with the deity’s land reorients the jīva—showing the avatāra’s salvific field (kṣetra-śakti).
‘Mama kṣetra’ parallels yajña-vedi: a bounded sacred space where impurities are transmuted by divine presence.
Grace (anugraha) can operate through place and devotion, softening karmic determinism without denying moral causality.
As a result of the offence one is born in a caṇḍāla’s house; yet dying within Varāha’s kṣetra becomes a turning point for future uplift.
Socially degraded birth as karmic ripening; death in the deity’s kṣetra mitigates and redirects destiny toward devotion (expanded in next verse).
Indirect: kṣetra-mahātmyas in Mathurā-maṇḍala often culminate in Bhāgavata devotion; this verse anticipates salvific power of sacred land later associated with Vaiṣṇava centers.
Varāha Purāṇa 136.4 (rebirth as devotee in Bhāgavata household)
FAQs
It shows how Purāṇic texts combine social imagery and sacred-geographic concepts (‘kṣetra’) to articulate consequences and possible transitions toward purification.
The verse mentions ‘mama kṣetre’ (“in my sacred domain”) but does not specify a named location; it functions as a generic sacred-territory marker within the text.
That actions have consequences across social and spatial registers, and that dying within a designated ‘kṣetra’ is presented as a significant condition in the narrative logic.
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