Shloka 190
Adhyaya 8 — Harishchandra’s Trial: Truth, the Sale of Family, and Bondage to a Chandala
कस्य जानुप्रणीतेन पिङ्गेन क्षितिरेणुना ।
ममोत्तरीयमुत्सङ्गं तथाङ्गं मलमेṣ्यति ॥
kasya jānu-praṇītena piṅgena kṣiti-reṇunā | mamottarīyam utsaṅgaṃ tathāṅgaṃ malam eṣyati ||
那被小小膝盖扬起的黄褐尘土——还会由谁再一次弄脏我的上衣、我的膝上与我的身体？
{ "primaryRasa": "karuna", "secondaryRasa": "shanta", "rasaIntensity": 0, "emotionalArcPosition": "", "moodDescriptors": [] }
FAQs
The king mourns not abstractions but ordinary tenderness—showing that saṃsāra binds through the very sweetness of daily life. The lesson is to cherish without possessiveness, aligning love with dharma and acceptance.
Ākhyāna; an affective passage supporting later instruction, rather than cosmological classification.
Dust (reṇu) can signify materiality and mortality: all bodies return to earth. The child’s dust on the king’s body foreshadows the ultimate ‘dusting’ of all embodied relations by time.