Markandeya Purana — Adhyaya 18, Shloka 3

Adhyaya 18 — Arjuna Declines the Throne; Garga Directs Him to Dattatreya; The Gods Defeat the Daityas through Dattatreya’s Vision and the Movement of Lakshmi

Sanskrit

यदर्थं गृह्यते शुल्कं तदनिष्पादयन् वृथा ।

पण्यानां द्वादशं भागं भूपालाय वणिग्जनः ॥

Transliteration

yadarthaṃ gṛhyate śulkaṃ tad aniṣpādayan vṛthā /

paṇyānāṃ dvādaśaṃ bhāgaṃ bhūpālāya vaṇigjanaḥ

Translation

အကောက်ခွန်ကိုယူသော်လည်း ယူရသည့်ရည်ရွယ်ချက် (ကာကွယ်ရေးနှင့် စည်းကမ်းတကျမှု) ကို မပေးနိုင်လျှင် ထိုယူခြင်းသည် အလဟသ ဖြစ်သည်။ ကုန်သည်အဖွဲ့သည် ဘုရင်ထံသို့ ကုန်ပစ္စည်း၏ ဆယ့်နှစ်ပုံတစ်ပုံကို ပေးသည်။

Word by Word

• यत्: which
• यत्: Karma (कर्म)
• Type: Noun
• Root: यद् (सर्वनाम-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Neuter, Accusative (2nd/द्वितीया), Singular; relative pronoun used with अर्थम्

• अर्थम्: purpose/benefit
• अर्थम्: Karma (कर्म)
• Type: Noun
• Root: अर्थ (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine, Accusative (2nd/द्वितीया), Singular

• गृह्यते: is taken/collected
• गृह्यते: Kriya (क्रिया)
• Type: Verb
• Root: ग्रह् (धातु)
• Form: Present tense (लट्), Passive voice (कर्मणि), 3rd person (प्रथमपुरुष), Singular (एकवचन)

• शुल्कम्: toll/fee
• शुल्कम्: Karta (कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: शुल्क (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Neuter, Nominative (1st/प्रथमा), Singular; in passive, functions as grammatical subject

• तत्: that
• तत्: Karma (कर्म)
• Type: Noun
• Root: तद् (सर्वनाम-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Neuter, Accusative (2nd/द्वितीया), Singular; correlating with यत्

• अनिष्पादयन्: not accomplishing/fulfilling
• अनिष्पादयन्: Karta (कर्ता)
• Type: Verb
• Root: अन् + निष्पादय् (धातु; causative of निष्पद्)
• Form: Present active participle (वर्तमान-कृदन्त/शतृ), Masculine, Nominative (1st/प्रथमा), Singular; agent implied (e.g., king/collector)

• वृथा: in vain/without result
• वृथा: Kriya-visheshaṇa (क्रियाविशेषण)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: वृथा (अव्यय)
• Form: Indeclinable adverb (क्रियाविशेषण)

• पण्यानाम्: of the goods/merchandise
• पण्यानाम्: Shashthi-sambandha (षष्ठी-सम्बन्ध)
• Type: Noun
• Root: पण्य (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Neuter, Genitive (6th/षष्ठी), Plural (बहुवचन)

• द्वादशम्: twelfth (one out of twelve)
• द्वादशम्: Visheshana (विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: द्वादशन् (संख्या-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Neuter, Accusative (2nd/द्वितीया), Singular; numeral qualifying भागम्

• भागम्: share/portion
• भागम्: Karma (कर्म)
• Type: Noun
• Root: भाग (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine, Accusative (2nd/द्वितीया), Singular

• भूपालाय: to the king
• भूपालाय: Sampradana (सम्प्रदान)
• Type: Noun
• Root: भूपाल (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine, Dative (4th/चतुर्थी), Singular

• वणिक्-जनः: the merchant people/traders
• वणिक्-जनः: Karta (कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: वणिक् (प्रातिपदिक) + जन (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine, Nominative (1st/प्रथमा), Singular; षष्ठी-तत्पुरुष (वणिजां जनः)

Speakers

• Arjuna’s reasoning within the narrative (reported speech)

Verse Rasa

{ "primaryRasa": "shanta", "secondaryRasa": "", "rasaIntensity": 0, "emotionalArcPosition": "", "moodDescriptors": [] }

Key Themes

• Taxation ethics
• Social contract (protection for revenue)
• Economic dharma
• Kingship duty

FAQs

What is the philosophical or ethical takeaway?

Revenue is legitimate only when tied to public good—especially protection. Taking tax without delivering security/order is adharma.

How does this fit the Pancalakshana (5 characteristics)?

Dharma instruction embedded in vaṃśānucarita: governance norms articulated through a king’s dialogue.

What is the esoteric significance?

Tax here symbolizes ‘exchange of energy’ between ruler and subjects; imbalance (taking without giving) produces moral debt (ṛṇa) that ripens as suffering.