Shloka 8

Abhimanyu’s Śrāddha; Vyāsa’s Assurance of the Unborn Heir (अभिमन्योः श्राद्धं तथा गर्भरक्षणोपदेशः)

Devanagari script

यद्‌ दौहित्रवधं मेउद्य न ख्यापयसि शत्रुहन्‌ | तद्‌ भागिनेयनिधन तत्त्वेनाचक्ष्व मे प्रभो,“बेटा कमलनयन! तुम तो इस भूतलपर सत्यवादीके रूपमें प्रसिद्ध हो। शत्रुसूदन! फिर क्या कारण है कि आज तुम मुझे मेरे नातीके मारे जानेका समाचार नहीं बता रहे हो। प्रभो! अपने भानजेके वधका वृत्तान्त तुम मुझे ठीक-ठीक बताओ

Transliteration

yad dauhitravadhaṁ me ’dya na khyāpayasi śatruhan | tad bhāgineyanidhanaṁ tattvenācakṣva me prabho ||

Translation

«O Feinderschläger, da du mir heute nichts vom Tod des Sohnes meiner Tochter kundtust, so berichte mir, o Herr, wahrhaftig und vollständig den Hergang vom Tod des Sohnes deiner Schwester.»

Word by Word

• {'yad': 'since, because', 'dauhitra': 'daughter’s son

• grandson through a daughter', 'vadha': 'killing, slaying', 'me': 'to me

• my', 'adya': 'today, now', 'na': 'not', 'khyāpayasi': 'you inform, you make known', 'śatruhan': 'slayer of enemies (vocative epithet)', 'tad': 'then

• therefore', 'bhāgineya': 'sister’s son

• nephew', 'nidhana': 'death, destruction', 'tattvena': 'in truth

• as it really is', 'ācakṣva': 'tell, relate (imperative)', 'prabho': 'O lord, O master (vocative)'}

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Vaiśampāyana (speaker)
• Unnamed addressee addressed as Śatruhan/Prabhu
• Dauhitra (grandson through a daughter)
• Bhāgineya (nephew)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse foregrounds the ethical demand for truthful, complete speech (tattvena) in moments of crisis: withholding grave news about a loved one’s death is treated as a moral failure, and the listener insists on an accurate account.

What is happening in the narrative?

A grieving elder presses a respected warrior (addressed as ‘slayer of foes’ and ‘lord’) to disclose, without concealment, the true details of the death of a close young relative—described both as a daughter’s son (dauhitra) and as a sister’s son (bhāgineya).