Mahabharata — Anushasana Parva, Shloka 200

Śiva-nāmānukīrtana-prastāvaḥ

Prologue to the praise of Śiva and the Upamanyu testimony

Devanagari script

य: पूर्वमसृजद्‌ देवं ब्रह्माणं लोकभावनम्‌ । अण्डमाकाशमापूर्य वरं तस्माद्‌ वृणीमहे

Transliteration

yaḥ pūrvam asṛjad devaṁ brahmāṇaṁ lokabhāvanam | aṇḍam ākāśam āpūrya varaṁ tasmād vṛṇīmahe ||

Translation

သက္ကရာ (အိန္ဒြာ) မိန့်တော်မူသည်– «အစဉ်အလာအစမှာ လောကကိုဖန်ဆင်းထိန်းသိမ်းသူ ဘြဟ္မာကို ဖန်ဆင်းပေး၍ အာကာသတစ်လျှောက်ကို ကောသမစ်ဥ (အဏ္ဍ) ဖြင့် ပြည့်စုံစေသော မဟာသခင်ထံမှ ငါတို့သည် ကောင်းချီးတစ်ပါးကို တောင်းခံလိုသည်»။

Word by Word

• यः: who
• यः: Karta
• Type: Pronoun
• Root: यद्
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

• पूर्वम्: formerly, earlier
• पूर्वम्: Adhikarana
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: पूर्व

• असृजत्: created, produced
• Type: Verb
• Root: सृज्
• Form: Imperfect (Laṅ), 3rd, Singular, Parasmaipada

• देवम्: the god
• देवम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: देव
• Form: Masculine, Accusative, Singular

• ब्रह्माणम्: Brahmā
• ब्रह्माणम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: ब्रह्मन् (ब्रह्मा)
• Form: Masculine, Accusative, Singular

• लोकभावनम्: nourisher/creator of the worlds
• लोकभावनम्: Karma
• Type: Adjective
• Root: लोक-भावन
• Form: Masculine, Accusative, Singular

• अण्डम्: the cosmic egg
• अण्डम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: अण्ड
• Form: Neuter, Accusative, Singular

• आकाशम्: the sky/space
• आकाशम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: आकाश
• Form: Neuter, Accusative, Singular

• आपूर्य: having filled
• Type: Verb
• Root: आ-पूॄ
• Form: Lyap (absolutive/gerund), Parasmaipada (usage)

• वरम्: a boon
• वरम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: वर
• Form: Masculine, Accusative, Singular

• तस्मात्: from him
• तस्मात्: Apadana
• Type: Pronoun
• Root: तद्
• Form: Masculine, Ablative, Singular

• वृणीमहे: we choose, we seek
• Type: Verb
• Root: वृ (वृणुते)
• Form: Present (Laṭ), 1st, Plural, Ātmanepada

Speaker

शक्र उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Śakra (Indra)
• Brahmā
• Mahādeva (Śiva) (implied as the one from whom the boon is sought)
• Brahmāṇḍa (cosmic egg)
• Ākāśa (space)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse teaches humility and proper orientation in devotion: even a powerful deity like Indra recognizes the supreme creative source and seeks boons through reverent acknowledgment of that higher authority.

What is happening in the narrative?

Indra speaks while petitioning the Great Lord (Mahādeva/Śiva). He identifies the deity by cosmic deeds—creating Brahmā and establishing the cosmic egg filling space—then states that the gods wish to request a boon from him.