Shloka 1
Adhyaya 76 — Hymn to the Goddess
इति श्रीमार्कण्डेयपुराणे रैवतमन्वन्तरे पञ्चसप्ततितमोऽध्यायः ।
षट्सप्ततितमोऽध्यायः— ७६ ।
मार्कण्डेय उवाच— इत्येतत् कथितं तुभ्यं पञ्च मन्वन्तरं तव ।
चाक्षुषस्य मनोः षष्ठं श्रोतामिदमन्तरम् ॥
iti śrīmārkaṇḍeyapurāṇe raivatamanvantare pañcasaptatitamo 'dhyāyaḥ | ṣaṭsaptatitamo 'dhyāyaḥ—76 | mārkaṇḍeya uvāca—ity etat kathitaṃ tubhyaṃ pañca manvantaraṃ tava | cākṣuṣasya manoḥ ṣaṣṭhaṃ śrotām idam antaram ||
Assim, no Śrī Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, no Raivata-manvantara, encerra-se o septuagésimo quinto capítulo. Inicia-se agora o septuagésimo sexto capítulo. Disse Mārkaṇḍeya: «Assim te foram narrados os cinco manvantaras; ouve agora este sexto período, o de Cākṣuṣa Manu».
FAQs
The Purāṇa’s didactic method is incremental: it ‘closes’ one cycle and formally opens the next, reinforcing attentive reception and orderly knowledge transmission.
Manvantara: this is an explicit structural marker moving from one manvantara unit to the next, a core pancalakṣaṇa domain.
The chapter boundary functions like a ritual ‘saṃdhi’ (junction): endings and beginnings are sacralized, mirroring cosmic junctions between epochs.