Vamana Purana — Portents at Bali's Sacrifice, Shloka 94

Portents at Bali’s Sacrifice and the Kośakāra’s Son: The Power of Past Karma

Devanagari script

गतो ऽस्मि नरकं भूयस्तस्मान्मुक्तो ऽभवं शुकः महारण्ये तथा बद्धः शबरेण दुरात्मना

Transliteration

gato 'smi narakaṃ bhūyastasmānmukto 'bhavaṃ śukaḥ mahāraṇye tathā baddhaḥ śabareṇa durātmanā

Translation

{"scene_description": "A confined figure inside a wooden or bamboo cage being carried/sold in a prosperous city; nearby, a women’s quarter with young women watching; tension between captivity and opulence.", "primary_figures": ["caged captive (narrator)", "merchant’s son", "young women attendants"], "setting": "Inner city (puravara) near an affluent household’s women’s apartments", "color_palette": ["deep indigo", "gold", "sandalwood beige", "crimson accents"], "tanjore_prompt": "Tanjore style, gold-leaf architecture of a wealthy city mansion, a small ornate cage in the foreground with the captive inside, merchant’s son in silk garments, women’s quarter hinted behind curtains, rich reds and greens, devotional narrative panel composition", "pahari_prompt": "Pahari miniature, soft pastel palace courtyard, delicate lattice screens (jālī) of the women’s quarters, a small cage near the veranda, merchant’s son in pale saffron, subdued anxious mood, fine linework", "kerala_mural_prompt": "Kerala mural, bold outlines and earthy pigments, palace interior with stylized pillars, cage centrally placed, attendants and women in traditional ornaments, dramatic eyes conveying fear and moral tension", "pattachitra_prompt": "Pattachitra scroll style, flat perspective city-house interior, decorative borders, cage motif repeated, merchant’s son and women attendants in folk stylization, narrative caption space"}

Word by Word

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Speakers

• Unnamed narrator (a suffering being recounting past bondage) to Śuka (listener/interlocutor) within the Saromāhātmya frame

Key Themes

• Bondage and release (bandha–mokṣa)
• Karmic consequence (naraka experience)
• Didactic exemplum within tīrtha discourse

Verse Rasa (Emotional Flavour)

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

FAQs

Why is Śuka addressed here—does it indicate a larger dialogue frame?

Yes. Addressing Śuka typically signals a didactic narration embedded in a dialogue (often a sage-to-sage transmission). Here it functions as an exemplum: a personal testimony of repeated downfall and temporary release, used to sharpen the moral force of the surrounding tīrtha-mahima teaching.

What does ‘Śabara’ imply in Purāṇic narrative usage?

Śabara commonly denotes a forest-dwelling hunter/fowler community. In narrative rhetoric it can mark the peril of wilderness life—capture, trade, and exploitation—rather than serving as an ethnographic claim. The epithet durātmanā (‘wicked-minded’) individualizes blame to the captor.

Is any specific sacred place named in this verse?

No named tīrtha, river, or lake appears here; only the generic ‘mahāraṇya’ (great forest). The verse is primarily narrative setup, likely leading into a contrast with the liberating power of a specific tīrtha described nearby in the chapter.