Shloka 23
नियोगप्रसङ्गः — The Niyoga Episode: Births of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, Pāṇḍu, and Vidura
दुहिता प्रथिता लोके मानुषे रूपसम्पदा । तस्या हेतोर्महाभाग सवत्सां गां ममेप्सिताम्,“उसका नाम है जितवती। वह सुन्दर रूप और युवावस्थासे सुशोभित है। सत्यप्रतिज्ञ बुद्धिमान् राजर्षि उशीनरकी पुत्री है। रूपसम्पत्तिकी दृष्टिसे मनुष्यलोकमें उसकी बड़ी ख्याति है। महाभाग! उसीके लिये बछड़ेसहित यह गाय लेनेकी मेरी बड़ी इच्छा है
vaiśampāyana uvāca | duhitā prathitā loke mānuṣe rūpasampadā | tasyā hetor mahābhāga savatsāṃ gāṃ mamepsitām |
Vaiśampāyana sprach: „Es gibt eine Tochter, die unter den Menschen für die Vollkommenheit ihrer Schönheit berühmt ist. Um ihretwillen, o Edler, wünsche ich von dir eine Kuh samt ihrem Kalb zu erlangen.“
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how social reputation (prathā) and perceived excellence (rūpasampad) can become motives for acquisition and exchange; ethically, it invites reflection on desire-driven requests and the dharmic limits of seeking valued objects (here, a cow with calf) for personal aims.
The narrator reports that a daughter famed for beauty is the reason for a request: the speaker asks a noble person to give (or allow him to obtain) a cow along with her calf, presenting the request as connected to that woman’s sake.