Shloka 197
Adhyaya 8 — Harishchandra’s Trial: Truth, the Sale of Family, and Bondage to a Chandala
श्मशानमागतः कस्मादद्यैष स नरेश्वरः ।
अपहाय पुत्रशोकं सापश्यत् पतितं पतिम् ॥
śmaśānam āgataḥ kasmād adyaiṣa sa nareśvaraḥ |
apahāya putra-śokaṃ sāpaśyat patitaṃ patim ||
“किमर्थं अद्य श्मशानं आगतः स नराधिपः?” इति। पुत्रशोकं परित्यज्य सा पतिं भूमौ पतितं ददर्श॥
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FAQs
The verse portrays compounded sorrow and the mind’s forced reprioritization in disaster—personal grief yields to a larger shock, illustrating how saṃsāra delivers layered trials.
Didactic narrative (ākhyāna) rather than cosmological or genealogical pañcalakṣaṇa content.
The cremation-ground symbolizes the truth of endings; meeting the ‘fallen king’ there dramatizes the stripping away of worldly sovereignty before mortality.