Shloka 6

Droṇa’s Ācārya-Dakṣiṇā: Capture of Drupada and Division of Pāñcāla (द्रोण-आचार्यदक्षिणा)

Devanagari script

अतिक्रान्तसुखा: काला: पर्युपस्थितदारुणा: । श्रः श्र: पापिष्ठदिवसा: पृथिवी गतयौवना,“माँ! अब सुखके दिन बीत गये। बड़ा भयंकर समय उपस्थित होनेवाला है। उत्तरोत्तर बुरे दिन आ रहे हैं। पृथ्वीकी जवानी चली गयी

Transliteration

atikrāntasukhāḥ kālāḥ paryupasthitadāruṇāḥ | śraḥ śraḥ pāpiṣṭhadivasāḥ pṛthivī gatayauvanā ||

Translation

Vaiśampāyana sprach: „Mutter, die Tage des Glücks sind vorüber. Eine schreckliche Zeit rückt heran. Tag um Tag kommen immer sündhaftere und unheilvollere Tage. Die Erde hat ihre Jugend verloren—ihre frühere Kraft und ihr Wohlstand schwinden.“

Word by Word

अतिक्रान्तसुखाःwhose happiness has passed / past-happy

कालाःtimes, periods

पर्युपस्थितदारुणाःterrible (and) imminent / having arrived all around

शःeach, by (repetition) / successively

पापिष्ठदिवसाःvery evil days

पृथिवीthe earth

गतयौवनाwhose youth has gone

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

Vaiśampāyana

pṛthivī (Earth)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse frames moral and social decline as a loss of auspiciousness: when dharma weakens, time itself feels ‘terrible,’ and the world’s vitality diminishes. It warns that complacency in prosperity is dangerous, and that ethical deterioration manifests as increasingly harmful days.

What is happening in the narrative?

The speaker (reported by Vaiśampāyana) addresses ‘Mother,’ lamenting that good times have ended and that ominous, worsening days are approaching. The statement functions as a foreboding sign of an impending crisis affecting the whole world (pṛthivī).