Anushasana Parva Adhyaya 66 Shloka 42 - Mahabharata | German | Vedapath

Vyasa

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Shloka 42

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

Devanagari script

प्राणान्‌ ददाति भूतानां तेजश्न भरतर्षभ । गृहमभ्यागतायाथ यो दद्यादन्नमर्थिने,भरतश्रेष्ठ) जो घरपर आये हुए याचकको अन्न देता है, वह सब प्राणियोंको प्राण और तेजका दान करता है

Transliteration

prāṇān dadāti bhūtānāṁ tejaś ca bharatarṣabha | gṛham abhyāgatāyātha yo dadyād annam arthine ||

Translation

Nārada sprach: „O Stier unter den Bhāratas, wer einem bedürftigen Bittenden, der in sein Haus gekommen ist, Speise gibt, der verleiht damit allen Wesen Lebenshauch und Kraft.“

Word by Word

प्राणान्vital breaths, lives

ददातिgives

भूतानाम्of beings

तेजःsplendour, energy

भरतर्षभO bull among the Bharatas

गृहम्house, home

अभ्यागतायto one who has come (as a guest/visitor)

अथthen, and

यःwho

दद्यात्should give / would give

अन्नम्food

अर्थिनेto a supplicant, to one who asks

भरतश्रेष्ठO best of the Bharatas

Speaker

नारद उवाच

Characters & Entities

Nārada

Bharatarṣabha (honorific addressee, likely Yudhiṣṭhira)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Food-giving (anna-dāna), especially to a needy person who comes to one’s home, is praised as a supreme form of charity because it sustains life itself—symbolically ‘giving prāṇa and tejas’ to beings.

What is happening in the narrative?

In Anuśāsana Parva’s instruction on dharma and gifts, Nārada addresses a Bharata prince and extols hospitality: feeding an arriving petitioner is presented as an act with universal life-sustaining ethical power.