Shloka 29
Adhyaya 8 — Harishchandra’s Trial: Truth, the Sale of Family, and Bondage to a Chandala
शयानं भुवि तं दृष्ट्वा हरिश्चन्द्रं महीपतिम् ।
उवाचेदं सकरुणं राजपत्नी सुदुःखिता ॥
śayānaṃ bhuvi taṃ dṛṣṭvā hariścandraṃ mahīpatim / uvācedaṃ sakaruṇaṃ rājapatnī suduḥkhitā //
நிலத்தில் கிடந்த அரசன் ஹரிச்சந்திரனைப் பார்த்த ராணி மிகுந்த துயருற்று கருணையுடன் இவ்வார்த்தைகளைச் சொன்னாள்।
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FAQs
The verse foregrounds karuṇā (compassion) as a dhārmic response to extreme misfortune. Even where royal status collapses into helplessness (a king lying on bare ground), the human capacity for empathy and steadfast relational duty remains a moral anchor.
This is best classified under Vaṃśānucarita/Carita (accounts of royal lineages and exemplary lives), a common purāṇic mode used to teach dharma through narrative rather than through cosmological Sarga/Pratisarga material.
Symbolically, the king ‘on the earth’ can signify the stripping away of worldly sovereignty (rājya-abhimāna) and the confrontation with bare reality (bhūmi). The queen’s compassionate speech represents the sattvic counterforce—inner nobility persisting when outer power is gone.