Kurma Purana — Purva Bhaga, Shloka 18

Prākṛta Sṛṣṭi and Pralaya: From Pradhāna to Brahmāṇḍa; Trimūrti Samanvaya

Devanagari script

वैकारिकस्तैजसश्च भूतादिश्चैव तामसः / त्रिविधो ऽयमहङ्कारो महतः संबभूव ह

Transliteration

vaikārikastaijasaśca bhūtādiścaiva tāmasaḥ / trividho 'yamahaṅkāro mahataḥ saṃbabhūva ha

Translation

မဟတ် (ကမ္ဘာလုံးဆိုင်ရာဉာဏ်) မှ အဟင်္ကာရ (အတ္တသဘော) သုံးမျိုး ပေါ်ထွန်းလာသည်။ သတ္တဝိကကို «ဝိုင်ကာရိက» ဟုခေါ်၍၊ ရာဇသကို «တိုင်ဇသ» ဟုခေါ်ကာ၊ တာမသကို «ဘူတာဒီ» ဟု သိကြသည်။

Word by Word

• vaikārikaḥ: sāttvika (transformative)
• vaikārikaḥ: Karta (कर्ता/विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: vaikārika (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine (पुंलिङ्ग), Nominative (प्रथमा/1), Singular (एकवचन); adjective of ahaṅkāra

• taijasaḥ: rājasa (fiery/energetic)
• taijasaḥ: Karta (कर्ता/विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: taijasa (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine (पुंलिङ्ग), Nominative (प्रथमा/1), Singular (एकवचन); adjective of ahaṅkāra

• ca: and
• ca: Sambandha (सम्बन्ध)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: ca (अव्यय)
• Form: Avyaya; conjunction (समुच्चय)

• bhūtādiḥ: Bhūtādi (source of elements)
• bhūtādiḥ: Karta (कर्ता/समानााधिकरण)
• Type: Noun
• Root: bhūta (प्रातिपदिक) + ādi (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Tatpuruṣa (तत्पुरुष) compound; Masculine (पुंलिङ्ग), Nominative (प्रथमा/1), Singular (एकवचन); name of tāmasa-ahaṅkāra

• ca: and
• ca: Sambandha (सम्बन्ध)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: ca (अव्यय)
• Form: Avyaya; conjunction (समुच्चय)

• eva: indeed
• eva: Sambandha (सम्बन्ध)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: eva (अव्यय)
• Form: Avyaya; emphatic particle (अवधारण)

• tāmasaḥ: tāmasa (dark/inert)
• tāmasaḥ: Karta (कर्ता/विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: tāmasa (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine (पुंलिङ्ग), Nominative (प्रथमा/1), Singular (एकवचन); adjective of ahaṅkāra

• trividhaḥ: threefold
• trividhaḥ: Karta (कर्ता/विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: tri (प्रातिपदिक) + vidha (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Tatpuruṣa (तत्पुरुष) compound; Masculine (पुंलिङ्ग), Nominative (प्रथमा/1), Singular (एकवचन)

• ayam: this
• ayam: Karta (कर्ता/निर्देशक)
• Type: Noun
• Root: idam (सर्वनाम-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Pronoun, Masculine (पुंलिङ्ग), Nominative (प्रथमा/1), Singular (एकवचन)

• ahaṅkāraḥ: ego-principle (ahaṅkāra)
• ahaṅkāraḥ: Karta (कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: ahaṅkāra (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine (पुंलिङ्ग), Nominative (प्रथमा/1), Singular (एकवचन)

• mahataḥ: from mahat (the great principle)
• mahataḥ: Apadana (अपादान)
• Type: Noun
• Root: mahat (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Neuter (नपुंसकलिङ्ग), Ablative (पञ्चमी/5) (form identical to genitive), Singular (एकवचन)

• saṃbabhūva: arose, came into being
• saṃbabhūva: Kriya (क्रिया)
• Type: Verb
• Root: sam + √bhū (भू धातु)
• Form: Liṭ (लिट्, perfect), 3rd person (प्रथमपुरुष), Singular (एकवचन)

• ha: indeed (particle)
• ha: Sambandha (सम्बन्ध)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: ha (अव्यय)
• Form: Avyaya; expletive/emphatic particle (पादपूरण/निपात)

Speaker

Sūta (narrating the Purāṇic teaching to the sages, in a Sāṅkhya-informed creation context)

Verse Rasa

Primary Rasa: adbhuta

Secondary Rasa: shanta

Characters & Entities

• Mahat
• Ahaṅkāra
• Vaikārika
• Taijasa
• Bhūtādi

More Details (3 sections)

FAQs

How does this verse explain the nature of the Supreme Self (Atman)?

It distinguishes the evolutes of Prakṛti—Mahat and the threefold Ahaṅkāra—from the Self; the Atman/Iśvara is implied as the witnessing principle beyond these guṇa-born categories.

What Yoga or Meditative practices are highlighted here?

The verse supports guṇa-analysis used in Yoga: by discerning sāttvika, rājasa, and tāmasa movements of ego, one cultivates sattva (vaikārika) and restrains rajas/tamas—an inner discipline aligned with Kurma Purana’s yogic and Pāśupata-oriented purification.

How does this verse depict the relationship between Shiva and Vishnu?

Indirectly: it presents a shared sāṃkhya-yogic metaphysics commonly employed by both Śaiva and Vaiṣṇava teachings in the Kurma Purana, providing a neutral tattva-map upon which devotion to either form of Īśvara is grounded.