Shloka 72

Adhyāya 284: Tapas as a Corrective to Household Attachment

Parāśara’s Instruction

Devanagari script

शतोदर शतावर्त शतजिह्द नमोस्तु ते

Transliteration

śatodara śatāvarta śatajihva namo'stu te

Translation

«يا ذا المئةِ بطن، يا ذا المئةِ التفاف، يا ذا المئةِ لسان—لكَ السجودُ والتحية.»

Word by Word

• शतोदर: O (you) of a hundred bellies
• शतोदर: Sampradana
• Type: Adjective
• Root: शत-उदर
• Form: Masculine, Vocative, Singular

• शतावर्त: O (you) of a hundred coils/whorls
• शतावर्त: Sampradana
• Type: Adjective
• Root: शत-आवर्त
• Form: Masculine, Vocative, Singular

• शतजिह्व: O (you) of a hundred tongues
• शतजिह्व: Sampradana
• Type: Adjective
• Root: शत-जिह्वा
• Form: Masculine, Vocative, Singular

• नमः: salutation, homage
• नमः: Karma
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: नमस्

• अस्तु: let it be
• Type: Verb
• Root: अस् (अस्ति)
• Form: Imperative (Vidhi-lin), 3rd, Singular

• ते: to you
• ते: Sampradana
• Type: Pronoun
• Root: युष्मद्
• Form: Masculine, Dative, Singular

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhīṣma

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse models humility and devotion: when confronted with a vast, many-aspected power, one responds with reverence rather than arrogance, acknowledging limits of human control and understanding.

What is happening in the narrative?

Bhīṣma is speaking and offers a formal salutation (namo'stu te) to a being described through hyperbolic epithets—“hundred-bellied, hundred-coiled, hundred-tongued”—as part of a praise or invocation within the Śānti Parva discourse.