Shloka 1

Adhyaya 46 — Cosmic Dissolution, the Emergence of Brahma, and the Measures of Time (Yugas, Manvantaras, and Brahma’s Day)

Sanskrit

इति श्रीमार्कण्डेयपुराणे ब्रह्मोत्पतिर् नाम पञ्चचत्वारिंशोऽध्यायः ।

श्रीमन्महर्षिवेदव्यासप्रणीतं श्रीमार्कण्डेयपुराणम् । (द्वितीयो भागः)

षट्चत्वारिंशोऽध्यायः ।

क्रौष्टुकिरुवाच भगवन्स्त्वण्डसम्भूतिर्यथावत् कथिता मम ।

ब्रह्माण्डे ब्रह्मणो जन्म तथा चोक्तं महात्मनः ॥

Transliteration

iti śrīmārkaṇḍeyapurāṇe brahmotpatir nāma pañcacatvāriṃśo 'dhyāyaḥ | śrīmanmaharṣivedavyāsapraṇītaṃ śrīmārkaṇḍeyapurāṇam | (dvitīyo bhāgaḥ) ṣaṭcatvāriṃśo 'dhyāyaḥ | krauṣṭukir uvāca bhagavaṃs tv aṇḍasambhūtir yathāvat kathitā mama | brahmāṇḍe brahmaṇo janma tathā coktaṃ mahātmanaḥ

Translation

ဤသို့ဖြင့် သီရိ မာရ္ကဏ္ဍေယ ပုရာဏ၌ ‘ဗြဟ္မာ၏ မူလအစ’ ဟု ခေါ်သော လေးဆယ့်ငါးမြောက် အခန်း (ဒုတိယပိုင်း) ပြီးဆုံး၏။ အခန်း လေးဆယ့်ခြောက်။ ကရောဋ္ဌုကီ (Krauṣṭuki) က ပြော၏— «အို မင်္ဂလာရှိသော အရှင်၊ စကြဝဠာဥ (Brahmāṇḍa) ၏ မူလအစကို ကျွန်ုပ်အား မှန်ကန်စွာ ရှင်းပြပြီးပြီ; ထို့ပြင် အို မဟာစိတ်ရှိသူ၊ ဗြဟ္မာဏ္ဍ အတွင်း၌ ဗြဟ္မာ မွေးဖွားခြင်းကိုလည်း (ကျွန်ုပ်) သိရှိရပြီ»။

Word by Word

• iti: thus
• iti: Sambandha (सम्बन्ध)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: iti (अव्यय)
• Form: Avyaya, colophon marker/quotative

• śrī-mārkaṇḍeya-purāṇe: in the Śrī Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa
• śrī-mārkaṇḍeya-purāṇe: Adhikaraṇa (अधिकरण)
• Type: Noun
• Root: śrī + mārkaṇḍeya + purāṇa (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Tatpuruṣa (title compound), Neuter, Locative Singular (सप्तमी एकवचन)

• brahmotpatiḥ: (chapter) ‘Origin of Brahmā’
• brahmotpatiḥ: Karta (कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: brahma + utpatti (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Tatpuruṣa ‘origin of Brahmā’; Feminine stem ‘utpatti’, Nominative Singular (प्रथमा एकवचन) (colophon title usage)

• nāma: named
• nāma: Sambandha (सम्बन्ध)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: nāma (अव्यय)
• Form: Avyaya, nomen particle (नाम-निपात) ‘named/called’

• pañca-catvāriṃśaḥ: forty-fifth
• pañca-catvāriṃśaḥ: Viśeṣaṇa (विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: pañcan + catvāriṃśat (संख्या-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Dvigu (द्विगु) numeral compound ‘forty-five’; Masculine, Nominative Singular qualifying ‘adhyāyaḥ’

• adhyāyaḥ: chapter
• adhyāyaḥ: Karta (कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: adhyāya (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine, Nominative Singular

• śrīman-maharṣi-veda-vyāsa-praṇītam: composed by the revered sage Vedavyāsa
• śrīman-maharṣi-veda-vyāsa-praṇītam: Viśeṣaṇa (विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: śrīman + maharṣi + veda-vyāsa + praṇīta (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Tatpuruṣa chain: ‘composed by the venerable sage Vedavyāsa’; Neuter, Nominative/Accusative Singular qualifying ‘purāṇam’

• śrī-mārkaṇḍeya-purāṇam: the Śrī Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa
• śrī-mārkaṇḍeya-purāṇam: Karta (कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: śrī + mārkaṇḍeya + purāṇa (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Tatpuruṣa (title compound), Neuter, Nominative/Accusative Singular

• dvitīyaḥ: second
• dvitīyaḥ: Viśeṣaṇa (विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: dvitīya (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine, Nominative Singular; qualifying ‘bhāgaḥ’

• bhāgaḥ: part, section
• bhāgaḥ: Karta (कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: bhāga (प्रातिपदik)
• Form: Masculine, Nominative Singular

• ṣaṭ-catvāriṃśaḥ: forty-sixth
• ṣaṭ-catvāriṃśaḥ: Viśeṣaṇa (विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: ṣaṭ + catvāriṃśat (संख्या-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Dvigu numeral compound ‘forty-six’; Masculine, Nominative Singular qualifying ‘adhyāyaḥ’

• adhyāyaḥ: chapter
• adhyāyaḥ: Karta (कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: adhyāya (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine, Nominative Singular

• krauṣṭukiḥ: Krauṣṭuki
• krauṣṭukiḥ: Karta (कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: krauṣṭuki (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine, Nominative Singular

• uvāca: said
• uvāca: Kriyā (क्रिया)
• Type: Verb
• Root: √vac (धातु)
• Form: Liṭ (लिट्, perfect), 3rd person singular, Parasmaipada

• bhagavan: O Blessed one
• bhagavan: Sambodhana (सम्बोधन)
• Type: Noun
• Root: bhagavat (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine, Vocative Singular (सम्बोधन एकवचन)

• tu: indeed/and
• tu: Sambandha (सम्बन्ध)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: tu (अव्यय)
• Form: Avyaya, particle

• aṇḍa-sambhūtiḥ: the egg-origin (cosmic-egg birth)
• aṇḍa-sambhūtiḥ: Karta (कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: aṇḍa + sambhūti (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Tatpuruṣa ‘origin from the egg (cosmic egg)’; Feminine, Nominative Singular

• yathāvat: properly
• yathāvat: Kriyāviśeṣaṇa (क्रियाविशेषण)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: yathāvat (अव्यय)
• Form: Avyaya, adverb ‘properly/in due manner’

• kathitā: has been told
• kathitā: Kriyā (क्रिया)
• Type: Verb
• Root: √kath (धातु)
• Form: Kṛdanta: Past passive participle (क्त), Feminine Nominative Singular; agreeing with ‘aṇḍasambhūtiḥ’

• mama: to me/of me
• mama: Sambandha (सम्बन्ध)
• Type: Noun
• Root: asmad (सर्वनाम-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Pronoun, Genitive Singular (षष्ठी एकवचन)

• brahmāṇḍe: in the cosmic egg (brahmāṇḍa)
• brahmāṇḍe: Adhikaraṇa (अधिकरण)
• Type: Noun
• Root: brahma + aṇḍa (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Tatpuruṣa ‘Brahmā’s egg/cosmic egg’; Neuter, Locative Singular (सप्तमी एकवचन)

• brahmaṇaḥ: of Brahmā/Brahman
• brahmaṇaḥ: Sambandha (सम्बन्ध)
• Type: Noun
• Root: brahman (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine/Neuter stem ‘brahman’; Genitive Singular (षष्ठी एकवचन)

• janma: birth
• janma: Karta (कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: janman (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Neuter, Nominative/Accusative Singular; here Nominative as topic ‘birth’

• tathā: also/thus
• tathā: Sambandha (सम्बन्ध)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: tathā (अव्यय)
• Form: Avyaya, adverb ‘thus/also’

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

• uktam: has been said
• uktam: Kriyā (क्रिया)
• Type: Verb
• Root: √vac (धातु)
• Form: Kṛdanta: Past passive participle (क्त), Neuter Nominative/Accusative Singular; impersonal/passive ‘has been said’

• mahātmanaḥ: of the great-souled one
• mahātmanaḥ: Sambandha (सम्बन्ध)
• Type: Noun
• Root: mahātman (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine, Genitive Singular (षष्ठी एकवचन)

Speakers

• Krauṣṭuki (questioner) addressing a revered interlocutor (bhagavan) at the opening of Adhyāya 46

Verse Rasa

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

Primary Deities

• Brahmā

Key Themes

• Textual colophon
• Cosmology continuation
• Dialogue structure (question-and-answer)

FAQs

What is the philosophical or ethical takeaway?

The Purāṇic method is dialogic: careful listening (śravaṇa) culminates in precise restatement and further inquiry—modeling disciplined learning.

How does this fit the Pancalakshana (5 characteristics)?

This is a transition marker after Sarga (creation) exposition; it introduces continued cosmological narration rather than manvantara/vaṃśa material.

What is the esoteric significance?

Colophons and frame-questions signal ‘adhikāra’ (readiness): the listener has assimilated one layer and is prepared to proceed deeper into causal explanations.