Markandeya Purana — Adhyaya 47, Shloka 20

Adhyaya 47 — Brahma’s Awakening and the Ninefold Scheme of Creation

Sanskrit

अतपथग्राहिणश्चैव ते ’ज्ञाने ज्ञानमानिनः ।

अहङ्कृता अहंमाना अष्टाविंशद्विधात्मकाः ॥

Transliteration

atpathagrāhiṇaś caiva te 'jñāne jñānamāninaḥ /

ahaṅkṛtā ahaṃmānā aṣṭāviṃśadvidhātmakāḥ ||

Translation

သူတို့သည် လမ်းမဟုတ်သောအရာကို လမ်းဟု ဖမ်းဆုပ်ကာ၊ အဝိဇ္ဇာအတွင်း၌ ကိုယ်တိုင် သိသူဟု ထင်မြင်ကြသည်။ အဟင်္ကာရ (အတ္တသဘော) နှင့် ကိုယ်ကိုယ်မောင့်မာမှုတို့က ပုံသွင်းထားပြီး၊ အစိတ်အပိုင်း ၂၈ မျိုးပါသော ဖွဲ့စည်းပုံရှိကြသည်။

Word by Word

• अतपथ-ग्राहिणः: taking the wrong path
• अतपथ-ग्राहिणः: Viśeṣaṇa (विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: a-tapatha (प्रातिपदिक) + grāhin (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: तत्पुरुष-समास: ‘अतपथ’ (wrong path) + ‘ग्राहिन्’ (one who takes); पुंलिङ्ग, प्रथमा (1st), बहुवचन; विशेषण

• च: and
• च: Samuccaya (समुच्चय)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: ca (अव्यय)
• Form: अव्यय (conjunction)

• एव: indeed, just
• एव: Sambandha (सम्बन्ध)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: eva (अव्यय)
• Form: अव्यय (emphatic particle)

• ते: they
• ते: Karta (कर्ता)
• Type: Noun
• Root: tad (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: सर्वनाम, पुंलिङ्ग, प्रथमा (1st), बहुवचन

• अज्ञाने: in ignorance
• अज्ञाने: Adhikaraṇa (अधिकरण)
• Type: Noun
• Root: a-jñāna (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, सप्तमी (7th/locative), एकवचन

• ज्ञान-मानिनः: thinking themselves knowledgeable
• ज्ञान-मानिनः: Viśeṣaṇa (विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: jñāna (प्रातिपदिक) + mānin (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: तत्पुरुष-समास: ‘ज्ञान’ + ‘मानिन्’ (one who thinks/prides); पुंलिङ्ग, प्रथमा (1st), बहुवचन; विशेषण

• अहङ्कृताः: egoistic
• अहङ्कृताः: Viśeṣaṇa (विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: ahaṅkṛta (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, प्रथमा (1st), बहुवचन; विशेषण (formed from अहंकार)

• अहं-मानाः: self-conceited
• अहं-मानाः: Viśeṣaṇa (विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: aham (प्रातिपदिक) + māna (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: तत्पुरुष-समास: ‘अहम्’ + ‘मान’ (self-conceit); पुंलिङ्ग, प्रथमा (1st), बहुवचन; विशेषण

• अष्टाविंशत्-विध-आत्मकाः: consisting of twenty-eight kinds
• अष्टाविंशत्-विध-आत्मकाः: Viśeṣaṇa (विशेषण)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: aṣṭāviṃśat (संख्या/प्रातिपदिक) + vidha (प्रातिपदिक) + ātmaka (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: तत्पुरुष-समास (numerical-determinative): ‘अष्टाविंशत्’ (28) + ‘विध’ (kinds) + ‘आत्मक’ (consisting of); पुंलिङ्ग, प्रथमा (1st), बहुवचन; विशेषण

Speakers

• Narratorial cosmology within the Markandeya Purana’s teaching context (frame-speakers not explicit in these verses)

Verse Rasa

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

Primary Deities

• Brahmā

Key Themes

• Cosmology
• Sarga (Creation)
• Avidyā
• Ahaṅkāra
• Guṇa theory

FAQs

What is the philosophical or ethical takeaway?

A core warning: ignorance often masquerades as certainty. The ethical lesson is epistemic humility—without clarity, beings cling to false ‘paths’ and reinforce ego, which perpetuates suffering and misdirected action.

How does this fit the Pancalakshana (5 characteristics)?

Sarga: guṇa/psychological traits of a created category are enumerated as part of the cosmogonic account.

What is the esoteric significance?

The ‘28-fold’ note signals that embodiment is a structured complex (tattva-style enumeration). Esoterically, it points to how ego and mis-knowing crystallize into a fixed psycho-physical matrix.