Shloka 3

अर्जुनदुःखहेतुप्रश्नः — Inquiry into the cause of Arjuna’s recurring hardship

Book 14, Chapter 89

Devanagari script

उद्धृत्य तु वपां तस्य यथाशास्त्र द्विजातय:

Transliteration

uddhṛtya tu vapāṃ tasya yathāśāstraṃ dvijātayaḥ

Translation

Vaiśampāyana sprach: Nachdem die zweimalgeborenen Priester gemäß den rituellen Vorschriften das Netz (Omentum) ordnungsgemäß entnommen hatten, verfuhren sie weiter wie geboten und achteten darauf, in jeder Handlung des Opfers der Śāstra zu folgen.

Word by Word

• उद्धृत्य: having taken out / having extracted
• उद्धृत्य: Karma
• Type: Verb
• Root: उद्-हृ (धातु: हृ)
• Form: क्त्वान्त अव्यय (absolutive/gerund), कर्तरि

• तु: but/indeed
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: तु

• वपाम्: the omentum / caul-fat
• वपाम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: वपा
• Form: Feminine, Accusative, Singular

• तस्य: of him/it
• Type: Pronoun
• Root: तद्
• Form: Masculine/Neuter, Genitive, Singular

• यथा: according to / as
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: यथा

• शास्त्रम्: the scripture/ritual rule
• शास्त्रम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: शास्त्र
• Form: Neuter, Accusative, Singular

• द्विजातयः: the twice-born (Brahmins etc.)
• द्विजातयः: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: द्विजाति
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Plural

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Vaiśampāyana
• dvijātayaḥ (Brahmin priests)
• vapā (ritual omentum)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse emphasizes dharma as disciplined adherence to śāstra: even powerful royal rites must be carried out with exact ritual correctness by qualified priests, showing that authority is subordinate to prescribed ethical-ritual order.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the course of the sacrificial proceedings, the officiating Brahmins remove the vapā (a specific sacrificial portion) from the animal/subject of the rite, performing the act exactly as the ritual manuals prescribe.