Shloka 5

Jvarotpatti — The Origin and Distribution of Jvara

Fever

Devanagari script

तेभ्य: सृजति भूतानि काल आत्मप्रचोदित: । एतेभ्यो य: परं ब्रूयादसद्‌ ब्रूयादसंशयम्‌

Transliteration

tebhyaḥ sṛjati bhūtāni kāla ātmapracoditaḥ | etebhyo yaḥ paraṃ brūyād asad brūyād asaṃśayam ||

Translation

तेभ्यः सृजति भूतानि काल आत्मप्रचोदितः । एतेभ्यो यः परं ब्रूयादसद्ब्रूयादसंशयम् ॥

Word by Word

तेभ्यःfrom them / to them

सृजतिcreates, produces

भूतानिbeings, creatures, elements

कालःTime

आत्मप्रचोदितःimpelled by himself (self-urged)

एतेभ्यःfrom these

यःwho

परम्higher, beyond (something higher)

ब्रूयात्should say, would declare

असत्non-being, falsehood, the unreal

ब्रूयात्should say, would declare

असंशयम्undoubtedly, without doubt

Speaker

असित उवाच

Characters & Entities

Asita

Kāla (Time)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse asserts a causal hierarchy in which beings arise from certain stated principles, with Time (kāla) functioning as the operative force. It warns that positing something ‘beyond’ these as a higher cause is to assert an unreality—i.e., to depart from what is being presented as the true explanatory framework.

What is happening in the narrative?

In a didactic discourse within Śānti Parva, the sage Asita is explaining a cosmological/ontological account of how creation proceeds. He emphasizes Time as the effective agent and closes the point by rejecting speculative claims of a superior principle beyond the ones under discussion.