Shloka 25

Kurukṣetra–Samantapañcaka Māhātmya: King Kuru’s Ploughing and Indra’s Boon (प्रजापतेरुत्तरवेदिः समन्तपञ्चकं)

Devanagari script

दुःखितो भरतश्रेष्ठ तस्या रूपबलात्कृत: । उन्होंने शर्तके अनुसार उसकी तपस्याका आधा भाग बड़े कष्टसे स्वीकार किया। फिर वे भी अपने शरीरका परित्याग करके उसीके पथपर चले गये। भरतश्रेष्ठ) वे उसके रूपपर बलात्‌ आकृष्ट होकर अत्यन्त दुःखी हो गये थे ।। एतत्ते वृद्धकन्याया व्याख्यातं चरितं महत्‌

Transliteration

duḥkhito bharataśreṣṭha tasyā rūpabalāt kṛtaḥ | etat te vṛddhakanyāyā vyākhyātaṃ caritaṃ mahat ||

Translation

Vaiśampāyana sprach: O Bester der Bhāratas, er wurde zutiefst bekümmert, als wäre er von der Macht ihrer Schönheit gewaltsam überwältigt worden. So habe ich dir die große Lebensgeschichte jenes betagten Mädchens dargelegt.

Word by Word

दुःखितःdistressed, sorrowful

भरतश्रेष्ठO best of the Bharatas

तस्याःof her

रूपbeauty, form

बलात्by force, forcibly

कृतःmade, rendered (i.e., made to be)

एतत्this

तेto you / for you

वृद्धकन्यायाःof the aged maiden

व्याख्यातम्explained, narrated

चरितम्conduct, story, deeds

महत्great

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

Vaiśampāyana

Bharata (as a dynastic epithet in the address bharataśreṣṭha)

vṛddhakanyā (the aged maiden; unnamed here)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights how overpowering attraction to outward beauty can compel a person against better judgment and lead to inner suffering; it frames this as a cautionary moral insight within a narrated exemplum.

What is happening in the narrative?

Vaiśampāyana addresses the listener as ‘best of the Bharatas’ and concludes a story: he states that the man became miserable due to being irresistibly drawn by the woman’s beauty, and he declares that he has now fully related the great account of the aged maiden.