Shloka 17
Śulka, Kanyā, and Dauhitra-Riktha: Discourse on Bride-Price and Inheritance Rights (शुल्क-कन्या-दौहित्र-रिक्थविचारः)
स वने निर्जने तात ददर्श मिथुनं नृणाम् । चक्रवत् परिवर्तन्तं गृहीत्वा पाणिना करम्
sa vane nirjane tāta dadarśa mithunaṁ nṛṇām | cakravat parivartantaṁ gṛhītvā pāṇinā karam ||
Bhishma sprach: „Mein Kind, in einem einsamen, menschenleeren Wald sah er ein Paar—Mann und Frau—die einander an der Hand hielten und sich drehten wie das Rad des Töpfers.“
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses a vivid image—two people revolving hand-in-hand like a wheel—to set up a moral reflection on human attachment and cyclical entanglement; it prepares the listener to consider how desire and mutual dependence can keep one ‘turning’ without progress unless guided by dharma.
In a secluded forest, the observer encounters a man and woman together, holding hands and spinning around like a potter’s wheel—an arresting scene that functions as a symbolic episode within Bhishma’s instruction.