Vamana Purana — Portents at Bali's Sacrifice, Shloka 102

Portents at Bali’s Sacrifice and the Kośakāra’s Son: The Power of Past Karma

Devanagari script

तस्माच्चाहं वृषत्वं वै गतश्चाण्डालपक्वणे स चैकदा मां शकटे नियोज्य स्वां विलासिनीम्

Transliteration

tasmāccāhaṃ vṛṣatvaṃ vai gataścāṇḍālapakvaṇe sa caikadā māṃ śakaṭe niyojya svāṃ vilāsinīm

Translation

“Therefore I came to the state of a bull, in the ‘cooking-place/quarter’ of a caṇḍāla. And once that man yoked me to a cart, (to convey) his own pleasure-seeking woman.”

Speakers

• Same repentant narrator continuing the karmic autobiography to the chapter’s listener(s).

Key Themes

• Transmigration into animal birth (tiryañc-yoni)
• Social degradation imagery as karmic consequence
• Servitude and exploitation as fruit of prior misconduct

Verse Rasa (Emotional Flavour)

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

FAQs

Why is rebirth as a bull (vṛṣatva) significant in Purāṇic ethics?

Animal birth is a common marker of karmic descent: reduced agency, speechlessness, and forced labor. The bull specifically evokes burden-bearing and yoking, matching the verse’s image of being harnessed to a cart.

What does ‘caṇḍāla-pakvaṇa’ imply?

Literally ‘the cooking-place of a caṇḍāla’, it functions as a social-location marker of impurity and marginality in classical dharma idiom. The narrative uses it to intensify the sense of fall—from human autonomy to lowly, exploited existence.

Who is ‘vilāsinī’ and why is she mentioned?

Vilāsinī (‘one who indulges in pleasure’) underscores the owner’s sensual lifestyle and the narrator’s forced participation as an instrument of another’s enjoyment. It mirrors the narrator’s earlier desire-driven ‘vilāsa’, now inverted into servitude—an ethical symmetry typical of karmic storytelling.