Daridra-purusha

Daridra-purusha · daridra-purusha, “the figure of poverty”

Grammar: masculine noun; a compound of daridra (poor, poverty) and purusha (a man, a figure).

Meaning: a figure of poverty; an iron image of Daridra.

In the scriptures: Bṛhaspati tells Indra of the time when King Satyadatta of Kāñcīpura proclaimed that he would buy whatever did not sell in the market. A blacksmith brought a Daridra-purusha of iron and asked a hundred rupees for it, and no one bought it. The king knew it for an image of Daridra, yet he bought it to keep his word and had it placed in the treasury. By its power satkarma, dharma and Lakshmī began to leave the kingdom at night as the king watched. Satya, in the form of a man, said that where poverty dwells he could not remain. The king held him and said he had kept to truth alone, and Satyadeva returned; Lakshmī, when the king asked her to stay unmoving, gave that vara and entered too (Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 4, Chapter 8).

Sources

• Bhavishya Purāṇa, Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 4, Chapter 8