Shloka 42

मानसतीर्थ-शौचप्रशंसा | Praise of the ‘Mental Tīrtha’ and the Marks of Purity

Devanagari script

नीयते रुद्रकन्याभि: सो<न्तरिक्षं सनातनम्‌ | अष्टादश सहस््राणि वर्षाणां कल्पमेव च

Transliteration

nīyate rudrakanyābhiḥ so 'ntarikṣaṃ sanātanam | aṣṭādaśa sahasrāṇi varṣāṇāṃ kalpam eva ca ||

Translation

رُدر کی کنواریاں اسے ابدی بینُ السّمائی (انترِکش) لوک میں لے جاتی ہیں؛ وہاں وہ اٹھارہ ہزار برس—بلکہ ایک کَلپ کے مانند طویل مدت—تک رہتا ہے۔

Word by Word

• नीयते: is led / is taken
• Type: Verb
• Root: नी (धातु)
• Form: Lat, Atmanepada, Karmani, Prathama, Eka

• रुद्रकन्याभिः: by the daughters of Rudra
• रुद्रकन्याभिः: Karana
• Type: Noun
• Root: रुद्रकन्या (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Stri, Trtiya, Bahu

• सः: he
• सः: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: तद् (सर्वनाम-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Pum, Prathama, Eka

• अन्तरिक्षम्: the mid-air / sky
• अन्तरिक्षम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: अन्तरिक्ष (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Napumsaka, Dvitiya, Eka

• सनातनम्: eternal
• Type: Adjective
• Root: सनातन (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Napumsaka, Dvitiya, Eka

• अष्टादश: eighteen
• Type: Adjective
• Root: अष्टादश (संख्या-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: —, —, —

• सहस्राणि: thousands
• सहस्राणि: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: सहस्र (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Napumsaka, Prathama, Bahu

• वर्षाणाम्: of years
• Type: Noun
• Root: वर्ष (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Napumsaka, Sasthi, Bahu

• कल्पम्: a kalpa / aeon
• कल्पम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: कल्प (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Pum, Dvitiya, Eka

• एव: indeed / just
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: एव

• च: and
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: च

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhīṣma
• Rudra
• Rudra-kanyāḥ (daughters of Rudra)
• Antarikṣa (mid-air/atmospheric realm)
• Kalpa (cosmic period)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse emphasizes the Mahābhārata’s moral-cosmic framework: actions and divine ordinances can result in post-mortem movement through specific realms, and the consequences (reward or condition) may endure for immense, quasi-cosmic spans of time.

What is happening in the narrative?

Bhīṣma describes a person being carried by Rudra’s daughters into the antarikṣa (the mid-air realm) and remaining there for an extraordinarily long duration—eighteen thousand years—characterized as kalpa-like in magnitude.