Shloka 17
Ādi-parva Adhyāya 141: Bhīma–Hiḍimba Confrontation and Protective Discourse
जनमेजय उवाच पुनर्विस्तरश: श्रोतुमिच्छामि द्विजसत्तम । दाहं जतुगृहस्यैव पाण्डवानां च मोक्षणम्,जनमेजय बोले--विप्रवर! मैं लाक्षागृहके जलने और पाण्डवोंके उससे बच जानेका वृत्तान्त पुनः विस्तारसे सुनना चाहता हूँ
janamejaya uvāca punar vistarataḥ śrotum icchāmi dvijasattama | dāhaṃ jatugṛhasyaiva pāṇḍavānāṃ ca mokṣaṇam ||
Janamejaya sprach: „O Bester der Brahmanen, ich wünsche, noch einmal und ausführlicher, den Bericht über den Brand des Lackhauses und darüber zu hören, wie die Pāṇḍavas daraus entkamen.“
जनमेजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the dharmic value of attentive inquiry: a ruler seeks a careful, detailed recounting of a morally charged event—an act of treachery (the lac-house plot) and the preservation of the Pāṇḍavas—so that ethical meaning can be discerned through accurate narration.
King Janamejaya requests the Brahmin narrator to retell, with greater detail, the episode of the lac-house being set on fire and the subsequent escape of the Pāṇḍavas.