Mahabharata 1.196.36 — Adi Parva, Adhyaya 196, Shloka 36
Adhyāya 196: Droṇa’s Conciliatory Counsel and Karṇa’s Suspicion of Counsel (मन्त्र-नय-विवादः)
कथं हि स्त्री कर्मणा ते महीतलात् समुत्तिछेदन्यतो दैवयोगात् । यस्या रूप॑ सोमसूर्यप्रकाशं गन्धश्चास्या: क्रोशमात्रात् प्रवाति
kathaṁ hi strī karmaṇā te mahītalāt samuttiṣed anyato daivayogāt | yasyā rūpaṁ somasūryaprakāśaṁ gandhaś cāsyāḥ krośamātrāt pravāti, rājan ||
Vyāsa sprach: „O König, wie könnte eine solche Frau durch dein rituelles Tun aus der Erde hervorgehen, wenn nicht aus einem anderen Grund—durch das Zusammentreffen göttlicher Fügung? Ihre Schönheit leuchtet im Glanz von Mond und Sonne, und ihr Duft weht eine ganze Krośa weit. Darum wisse: Diese Erscheinung ist nicht bloß Frucht menschlicher Mühe, sondern das Wirken der Götter und des Schicksals hinter dem Ritus.“
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse contrasts human ritual effort with divine causality: extraordinary outcomes—especially those marked by superhuman signs—are presented as arising through daivayoga (destiny/divine arrangement), not merely through personal agency. It encourages humility about ritual power and recognition of a larger moral-cosmic order guiding events.
Vyāsa addresses the king and points to the wondrous signs of the woman’s manifestation—radiant beauty like sun and moon, fragrance spreading for a krośa—to argue that her appearance from the earth/altar-ground cannot be explained by the king’s rite alone; it must be supported by divine destiny, aligning with the surrounding account of Draupadī’s miraculous emergence.
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