Shloka 9
मायासभायां दुर्योधनस्य अवमान-प्रसङ्गः
Duryodhana’s Humiliation in the Hall of Māyā
अन्तर्भूतं ततो भूतमुवाचेद॑ं पुनर्वच: । यस्योत्सड़े गृहीतस्य भुजावभ्यधिकावुभौ
antarbhūtaṃ tato bhūtam uvācedaṃ punarvacaḥ | yasyotsaṅge gṛhītasya bhujāv abhyadhikāv ubhau, nimajjiṣyati yaṃ dṛṣṭvā so 'sya mṛtyur bhaviṣyati |
Da sprach das unsichtbare Wesen, nun inwendig gegenwärtig, abermals: „Wenn dieses Kind auf den Schoß eines Menschen genommen wird, werden seine beiden zusätzlichen Arme—jeder mit fünf Fingern, gleich zwei fünfköpfigen Schlangen—einsinken und verschwinden. Und der, vor dessen Augen dies geschieht, wird die Ursache seines Todes sein.“
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the Mahābhārata theme that extraordinary power and ominous signs are morally charged: a prophecy links a physical anomaly to a destined ethical consequence—death—suggesting that fate operates through identifiable causes and conditions rather than randomness.
Bhīṣma reports that an unseen being delivers a prophecy about a child born with extra arms: when the child is placed on a particular person’s lap, the extra arms will vanish, and that very person—identified by this sign—will later become the instrument of the child’s death.