Markandeya Purana — Adhyaya 38, Shloka 11

Adhyaya 38 — Dattatreya on Non-Identification (Mamata) and the Path to Liberation

Sanskrit

संसाराध्वपरिश्रान्ता ये तच्छायां समाश्रिताः ।

भ्रान्तिज्ञानसुखाधीनास्तेषामात्यन्तिकं कुतः ॥

Transliteration

saṃsārādhvapariśrāntā ye tacchāyāṃ samāśritāḥ |

bhrāntijñānasukhādhīnāsteṣāmātyantikaṃ kutaḥ ||

Translation

သံသရာလမ်းခရီး၌ ပင်ပန်းနွမ်းနယ်၍ ထို(အလွတ်)အရိပ်ကိုသာ ခိုလှုံသူတို့သည်—မောဟကြောင့်ဖြစ်သော အသိပညာမှ မွေးဖွားသည့် အာရုံပျော်ရွှင်မှုကို အားထားနေသဖြင့်—အဆုံးစွန်သော အခြေအနေ(မောက္ခ)သို့ မည်သို့ ရောက်နိုင်မည်နည်း။

Word by Word

• संसाराध्वपरिश्रान्ताः: wearied on the road of saṃsāra
• संसाराध्वपरिश्रान्ताः: कर्ता (Karta/Subject)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: संसार + अध्वन् + परिश्रान्त (प्रातिपदिक; परिश्रान्त < √श्रम् (धातु))
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, प्रथमा (1st/Nominative), बहुवचन; समासः—संसाराध्वनि परिश्रान्ताः (locative-tatpuruṣa sense)

• ये: who (those who)
• ये: कर्ता (Karta/Subject)
• Type: Noun
• Root: यद् (सर्वनाम-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, प्रथमा (1st/Nominative), बहुवचन; सम्बन्धसूचक-सर्वनाम (relative pronoun)

• तत्: of that
• तत्: सम्बन्ध (Sambandha/Genitive relation)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: तद् (सर्वनाम-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, षष्ठी (6th/Genitive), एकवचन; ‘तत्’ = तस्य (genitive)

• छायाम्: shade
• छायाम्: कर्म (Karma/Object)
• Type: Noun
• Root: छाया (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: स्त्रीलिङ्ग, द्वितीया (2nd/Accusative), एकवचन

• समाश्रिताः: having taken refuge (resorted)
• समाश्रिताः: कर्ता (Karta/Subject; participial predicate)
• Type: Verb
• Root: सम्-आ-√श्रि (धातु) → समाश्रित (कृदन्त-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: भूतकृदन्त (past passive participle), पुंलिङ्ग, प्रथमा, बहुवचन; कर्तरि प्रयोगे ‘having resorted to’

• भ्रान्तिज्ञानसुखाधीनाः: dependent on illusory knowledge and pleasure
• भ्रान्तिज्ञानसुखाधीनाः: कर्ता (Karta/Subject)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: भ्रान्ति + ज्ञान + सुख + अधीन (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, प्रथमा, बहुवचन; समासः—भ्रान्तिज्ञानसुखेषु अधीनाः (locative-tatpuruṣa sense)

• तेषाम्: for them / of them
• तेषाम्: सम्बन्ध (Sambandha/Genitive relation)
• Type: Noun
• Root: तद् (सर्वनाम-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, षष्ठी (6th/Genitive), बहुवचन

• आत्यन्तिकम्: ultimate, absolute
• आत्यन्तिकम्: कर्म (Karma/Object; implied)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: आत्यन्तिक (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, प्रथमा/द्वितीया (Nom/Acc), एकवचन; विशेषणम् (elliptic: सुखम्/शान्तिः etc.)

• कुतः: whence? how (could it be)?
• कुतः: प्रश्न (Interrogative)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: कुतस् (अव्यय-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: अव्यय; प्रश्नार्थक-निपात (interrogative particle/adverb)

Speakers

• Teacher (a Brahman/ṛṣi) instructing King Alarka (contextual; Alarka speaks explicitly from v.17 onward)

Verse Rasa

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

Key Themes

• Moksha
• Viveka
• Detachment (vairāgya)
• Critique of pleasure-based life
• Sāṅkhya-Yoga

FAQs

What is the philosophical or ethical takeaway?

Temporary consolations and pleasure grounded in error cannot yield final freedom; liberation requires clear knowledge (viveka) and non-dependence on sense-pleasure.

How does this fit the Pancalakṣaṇa (5 characteristics)?

Not a pancalakṣaṇa topic (sarga/pratisarga/vaṃśa/manvantara/vaṃśānucarita) directly; it belongs to upadeśa (didactic philosophical instruction) embedded in the Purāṇa.

What is the esoteric significance?

“Shade” symbolizes provisional shelters—ritual merit, social identity, or pleasant experiences—mistaken as the goal; the verse points to the need to seek the ‘sun’ of Self-knowledge rather than its shadows.