Shloka 60
Adhyaya 8 — Harishchandra’s Trial: Truth, the Sale of Family, and Bondage to a Chandala
पश्यैहि वत्स मामेवं मातरं दास्यतां गताम् ।
मां मा स्प्रार्क्षो राजपुत्र ! अस्पृश्याहं तवाधुना ॥
paśyaihi vatsa māmevaṃ mātaraṃ dāsyatāṃ gatām | māṃ mā sprārkṣo rājaputra! aspṛśyāhaṃ tavādhunā ||
पश्य वत्स, मां जननीं दासीभावमापन्नाम्। मा मां स्पृश, राजकुमार; इदानीं तव अस्पृश्या अहम्।
FAQs
The verse dramatizes how misfortune can invert social standing and how dharma may require restraint even in intimate bonds. The mother’s command ‘do not touch’ reflects a perceived duty to uphold prevailing notions of ritual/social boundary, while also evoking compassion for those reduced to hardship.
This is not a pancalakṣaṇa (Sarga/Pratisarga/Vaṃśa/Manvantara/Vaṃśānucarita) datum. It belongs to the narrative/ethical instruction layer embedded in the Purāṇa—specifically the Devī Māhātmya episode—rather than cosmology or genealogy.
On a symbolic level, ‘untouchability’ can be read as the soul’s alienation under duḥkha and social conditioning: even love becomes constrained by fear of impurity. Within Devī Māhātmya’s broader arc, such suffering intensifies the need for refuge in Devī, who transcends and ultimately resolves worldly limitations.