Varaha Purana 21.19: Adhyaya 21, Shloka 19
The Disruption of Dakṣa’s Sacrifice, the Hari-Hara Conflict, and the Establishment of Rudra’s Sacrificial Share
Pūrva Bhāga · Pr̥thivī-uddhāra (Cosmic Restoration Narratives)
रुद्रः कोपोद्भवो यस्तु पूर्वं मग्नो महाजले । स सहस्रार्कसंकाशो निष्चक्राम जलात् ततः ॥ २१.२० ॥
rudraḥ kopodbhavo yas tu pūrvaṁ magno mahājale | sa sahasrārkasaṅkāśo niścakrāma jalāt tataḥ || 21.20 ||
rudraH kopodbhavo yastu pUrvaM magno mahAjale | sa sahastrArkasaMkAsho nishchakrAma jalAt tataH || 21.20 ||
रुद्रः कोपोद्भवो यस्तु पूर्वं मग्नो महाजले। स सहस्रार्कसंकाशो निष्चक्राम जलात् ततः॥
Sandhi Notes
- kopodbhavo = kopa-udbhavaḥ
- mahājale = mahā-jale
- sahasrārkasaṅkāśo = sahasra-arka-saṅkāśaḥ
- niścakrāma = nis + cakrāma (nis-√kram)
Varāha
The divine manifests both serene and fierce aspects; ‘wrath’ can be read as protective intensity against adharma.
Channel anger into disciplined protection of dharma; cultivate tapas/clarity so intensity becomes luminous rather than destructive.
Rudra ‘born of wrath’ emerging from waters encodes the reappearance of transformative/consuming power necessary for cosmic regulation after submergence (pralaya-like state).
Radiance ‘like a thousand suns’ mirrors the sacrificial fire’s intensification—Rudra as concentrated tejas that can both protect and dissolve impurities.
Tejas/rajas-tamas dynamics: wrath as a force of transformation; the divine includes fierce modalities for restoring balance.
Varāha Purāṇa 21.21.21 (deity shining through tapas)
FAQs
It preserves a Purāṇic narrative motif in which deities emerge from primordial waters, reflecting shared cosmological imagery across early Sanskrit traditions and later Purāṇic redactions.
No specific terrestrial location is named; the setting is mythic-cosmological (“mahājala”, the great waters), a common Purāṇic cosmological environment rather than a mapped pilgrimage site.
The verse is primarily descriptive rather than prescriptive; its philosophical emphasis is on transformation and emergence—depicting potent energy (kopa) as a causal force within cosmic narrative rather than issuing a direct moral injunction.
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