Verse 1

¹Having heard the story of Hari, whose self was the boar that is the cause, as the son of Kusaru told it, Vidura, who held to his vow and was not yet filled, raised his folded hands and asked him again. ²Best of sages, we have heard that it was by that same Hari, whose form is sacrifice, that the first of the Daityas, Hiranyaksa, was killed. ³Brahmin, for what reason was there a fight between him, as he was lifting the earth in play on the tip of his tusk, and the king of the Daityas? ⁴Well asked, hero, in that you ask for the story of Hari's descent, which frays through the noose of death for those who die. ⁵It was by that story, sung to him by the sage, that the boy, the son of Uttanapada, set his foot on the very head of death and went up to Hari's place.

⁶And on this too I have heard the old telling, given long ago by Brahma, god of gods, to the gods who asked him about it.