Shloka 3

Pānīya-dāna and Anna-dāna: The Primacy of Life-Sustaining Gifts (पानीयदान-प्रशंसा / अन्नदान-प्रशंसा)

Devanagari script

दत्तं किं फलवद्‌ राजन्निह लोके परत्र च | भवतः: श्रोतुमिच्छामि तन्मे विस्तरतो वद,राजन्‌! इहलोक और परलोकमें कौन-सा दान विशेष फल देनेवाला होता है? यह मैं आपके मुँहसे सुनना चाहता हूँ। आप इस विषयका विस्तारपूर्वक वर्णन कीजिये

Transliteration

yudhiṣṭhira uvāca | dattaṃ kiṃ phalavad rājann iha loke paratra ca | bhavataḥ śrotum icchāmi tan me vistarato vada rājann ||

Translation

Yudhiṣṭhira sprach: „O König, welche Gabe trägt wahrhaft Frucht — in dieser Welt wie auch in der jenseitigen? Ich wünsche es aus deinem eigenen Mund zu hören. Erkläre mir dies ausführlich, o König.“

Word by Word

[{'term''दत्तम् (dattam)', 'definition': 'a gift given

that which is donated'}, {'term''किम् (kim)', 'definition': 'what? which?'}, {'term': 'फलवत् (phalavat)', 'definition': 'fruitful

yielding results/reward'}, {'term''राजन् (rājan)', 'definition': 'O king (vocative address)'}, {'term': 'इह लोके (iha loke)', 'definition': 'in this world'}, {'term': 'परत्र (paratra)', 'definition': 'in the hereafter

in the next world'}, {'term''भवतः (bhavataḥ)', 'definition': 'from you

of you (honorific genitive/ablative sense)'}, {'term''श्रोतुम् (śrotum)', 'definition': 'to hear'}, {'term': 'इच्छामि (icchāmi)', 'definition': 'I desire

I wish'}, {'term''तत् (tat)', 'definition': 'that (teaching/matter)'}, {'term': 'मे (me)', 'definition': 'to me

for me'}, {'term''विस्तरतः (vistarataḥ)', 'definition': 'in detail

expansively'}, {'term''वद (vada)', 'definition': 'tell

Speaker

युधिछ्िर उवाच

Characters & Entities

य

युधिष्ठिर (Yudhiṣṭhira)

र

राजन् (the addressed King—interlocutor)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse frames a dharma-inquiry: Yudhiṣṭhira asks which forms of giving (dāna) produce meaningful results both socially in this life and spiritually in the hereafter, inviting a detailed ethical hierarchy of gifts.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Anuśāsana Parva’s instructional setting, Yudhiṣṭhira addresses a kingly authority figure and requests an expanded explanation about the most rewarding kinds of charity, setting up a discourse on dāna and its consequences.