Vamana Purana — Prahlada's Pilgrimage, Shloka 12

Prahlada’s Pilgrimage and the Origin of the Sudarshana–Trishula Exchange (Jalodbhava Episode)

Devanagari script

जानुनी चाश्विनीयोगे पूजयेदथ भक्तितः दोहदे च हविष्यान्नं पूर्ववद् द्विजभोजनम्

Transliteration

jānunī cāśvinīyoge pūjayedatha bhaktitaḥ dohade ca haviṣyānnaṃ pūrvavad dvijabhojanam

Translation

అశ్వినీ యోగం ఉన్నప్పుడు భక్తితో రెండు మోకాళ్లను పూజించాలి. దోహద సమయంలో హవిష్యాన్నం సమర్పించి, మునుపటిలాగే ద్విజులకు భోజనం పెట్టాలి.

Speakers

• Not specified in the excerpt (likely a narrator/ṛṣi instructing a listener within the Saro-māhātmya frame).

Primary Deities

• Vishnu

Key Themes

• Tirtha Mahima
• Vrata (observance)
• Nakshatra-based ritual timing
• Dana (charity)
• Brahmana-bhojana (feeding priests)
• Ritual purity (haviṣyānna)

Verse Rasa (Emotional Flavour)

{ "primaryRasa": "shanta", "secondaryRasa": "", "rasaIntensity": 0, "emotionalArcPosition": "", "moodDescriptors": [] }

FAQs

What is being worshiped here—deities or body-parts?

The verse prescribes aṅga-pūjā (worship of specific limbs), here the two knees, timed to the Aśvinī nakṣatra. In many Purāṇic vratas, the devotee ritually honors limbs as seats of divine presence or as symbolic stations in a mapped sacred body (microcosm of the cosmos).

What does ‘dohada’ mean in this ritual context?

While dohada can literally mean ‘craving’ (often of a pregnant woman), in tīrtha/vrata manuals it can denote a special prescribed offering-time or seasonal rite within a sequence. Here it marks the moment when a specific food-offering (haviṣyānna) and brāhmaṇa-feeding are to be performed.

Why is feeding brāhmaṇas repeatedly emphasized (‘pūrvavad dvijabhojanam’)?

Brāhmaṇa-feeding functions as dāna and as completion of the rite (yajña-like closure). ‘Pūrvavat’ indicates continuity with earlier verses: each nakṣatra-linked worship is paired with a specific offering and charitable act to accrue tīrtha-merit.