Shloka 38
Bhīṣma–Śiśupāla-saṃvādaḥ
Bhishma and Shishupala’s exchange in the assembly
ते त्वां हंससधर्माणमपीमे वसुधाधिपा: । निहन्युर्भीष्म संक्रुद्धा: पक्षिणस्तं यथाण्डजम्
te tvāṁ haṁsasadharmāṇam apīme vasudhādhipāḥ | nihanyur bhīṣma saṁkruddhāḥ pakṣiṇas taṁ yathāṇḍajam ||
Auch du bist von Natur wie jener Schwan; darum werden dich diese Könige, im Zorn entbrannt, heute erschlagen, o Bhīṣma—so wie die Vögel einst jenen Schwan töteten, den Eiergeborenen. In dieser Sache singen die kundigen Kenner der Purāṇas eine alte Gāthā; o Zierde des Bharata-Geschlechts, ich werde sie dir deutlich vortragen.
शिशुपाल उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses a moralizing comparison: a person perceived as swan-like—distinct, proud, or set apart—may become a target of collective anger. It warns how public insult and factional rage in a royal assembly can turn into violence, and it frames the point through an exemplum (a remembered gāthā) to lend traditional authority.
Śiśupāla addresses Bhīṣma in the royal assembly, threatening that the assembled kings, provoked and furious, will kill him, likening Bhīṣma to a swan killed by other birds. He then signals that he will support his claim by narrating an old Purāṇic gāthā known to traditional scholars.