Varaha Purana 41.42: Adhyaya 41, Shloka 42
Rite of the Varāha Dvādaśī Vow and an Exemplary Narrative on Expiation for Brahmin-Slaying
यथैवोद्धृतवान् वेदान् मत्स्यरूपेण केशवः । क्षीराम्बुधौ मथ्यमाने मन्दरं धृतवान् प्रभुः । तद्वच्च कूर्मरूपाख्या द्वितीया पश्य वैष्णवी ॥ ४१.४२ ॥
yathaivoddhṛtavān vedān matsyarūpeṇa keśavaḥ | kṣīrāmbudhau mathyamāne mandaraṁ dhṛtavān prabhuḥ | tadvacca kūrmarūpākhyā dvitīyā paśya vaiṣṇavī || 41.42 ||
Sebagaimana Keśava dalam rupa Ikan (Matsya) telah menyelamatkan Veda, dan sebagaimana Tuhan menanggung Gunung Mandara ketika Lautan Susu dikacau—demikian juga, wahai Vaiṣṇavī, lihatlah penzahiran kedua yang dikenali sebagai rupa Kura-kura (Kūrma).
Varāha (default speaker within the Varāha–Pṛthivī dialogue framework)
FAQs
It preserves a compact Purāṇic recollection of two widely attested narrative cycles—Matsya rescuing the Vedas and Kūrma supporting Mandara—useful for tracing how avatāra motifs are summarized and sequenced across Purāṇa corpora.
No terrestrial pilgrimage-site is specified; the verse references a mythic-cosmic setting, the 'Ocean of Milk' (kṣīrāmbudhi), associated with the churning narrative rather than a single historically mappable location.
The verse foregrounds the theme of preservation and support—rescuing foundational knowledge (the Vedas) and stabilizing a world-ordering process (the churning)—as a philosophical instruction about safeguarding cultural memory and sustaining cosmic balance.
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