Varaha Purana 71.15: Adhyaya 71, Shloka 15
Vision of the Trimūrti in Rudra, the Gautama Curse, the Manifestation of the Godāvarī, and the Niḥśvāsa-saṃhitā Account
कस्यचित्त्वथ कालस्य महती द्वादशाब्दिका । अनावृष्टिर्द्विजवरा अभवल्लोमहर्षिणी ॥ ७१.१५ ॥
kasyacit tv atha kālasya mahatī dvādaśābdikā | anāvṛṣṭir dvijavarā abhaval lomaharṣiṇī || 71.15 ||
กาลครั้งหนึ่ง โอ้ทวิชผู้ประเสริฐ ได้เกิดอนาวฤษฏิ (ความไร้ฝน) อันใหญ่หลวงยาวนานสิบสองปี น่าสะพรึงกลัวจนขนลุก
Varāha
Varaha Avatara Context: {"is_varaha_focus":false}
Bhu Devi Dialogue: {"is_dialogue":false,"speaker_role":"instructor","bhu_devi_state":"burdened by ecological imbalance; anxious/foreboding"}
Mathura Mandala: {"is_mathura_related":false}
Dharma Shastra: {"has_dharma_rule":false}
Vrata Mahatmya: {"has_vrata":false}
Cosmic Boar Symbolism: {"has_symbolism":false}
Philosophical Teaching: {"has_teaching":true,"teaching_type":"dharma-under-crisis / ecological ethics","core_concept":"Kāla (time) and ṛtu (seasonal order) can fail; dharmic society must respond with restraint, charity, and reliance on tapas/puṇya rather than panic.","practical_application":"Treat drought as a collective dharma-test: conserve resources, support ascetics/poor, intensify yajña/dāna, and avoid exploitation during scarcity."}
Subject Matter: ["Ecology","Environmental stress (drought)","Societal vulnerability","Narrative chronology"]
Primary Rasa: bhayanaka
Secondary Rasa: karuna
Type: wilderness/āśrama-periphery
Related Themes: Anāvṛṣṭi episode continuation: 71.71.16-19 (rṣis seek refuge; hospitality; later tīrtha-yātrā)
Visual Art Cues: {"scene_description":"A parched landscape under a relentless sky, with withered trees and anxious ascetics sensing a twelve-year drought; the narration tone is ominous and time-heavy.","item_prompts":["cracked earth","leafless trees","empty riverbed","gaunt sages in bark garments","scorching sun/bleached sky","distant āśrama huts"],"kerala_mural_prompt":"Kerala mural palette with dramatic ochres and deep reds: drought-stricken forest, stylized sun, rṣis with expressive eyes conveying dread; minimal background water motifs absent.","tanjore_prompt":"Tanjore composition with a central blazing sun haloed in gold leaf; foreground sages in muted tones, cracked earth rendered with ornamental patterning; sparse vegetation.","mysore_prompt":"Mysore-style soft shading: subdued, realistic famine mood; delicate linework on emaciated rṣis and dry foliage; atmospheric haze.","pahari_prompt":"Pahari miniature: wide negative space sky, thin trees, small clustered sages; narrative caption feel emphasizing ‘dvādaśābdikā anāvṛṣṭi’."}
Audio Atmosphere: {"recitation_mood":"grave, foreboding","suggested_raga":"Todi","pace":"slow","voice_tone":"low, weighty, slightly tremulous on ‘lomahārṣiṇī’"}
FAQs
It preserves a common Purāṇic literary motif of a prolonged multi-year drought (here, twelve years), which functions as a narrative device to frame social, ecological, and ethical responses to environmental stress in premodern Sanskrit literature.
No specific geographic site is named in this verse; it provides temporal framing for a drought episode without localizing it to a particular tīrtha or region in the given excerpt.
The verse itself is descriptive rather than prescriptive; its philosophical function is to foreground the severity of ecological imbalance (anāvṛṣṭi) as a context in which subsequent guidance on conduct, responsibility, and communal resilience may be articulated.
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