Shloka 11
Kṣātra-Dharma, Daṇḍanīti, and Social Order
Indra–Māndhātṛ Dialogue
अत्र ते वर्तयिष्यामि धर्ममर्थविनिश्चयम् । निर्मयदि वर्तमाने दानवैकार्णवे पुरा
atra te vartayiṣyāmi dharmam arthaviniścayam | nirmadī vartamāne dānavākarṇave purā ||
Hier will ich dir eine dharmische Begebenheit erzählen, die den wahren Sinn von artha (praktischem Nutzen und Wohlergehen) bestimmt. Vor langer Zeit, als die Welt zügellos geworden war—als wäre sie in ein Meer danavischer Gesetzlosigkeit versunken—wurde diese Lehre dargelegt, um Klarheit über rechtes Handeln und rechten Vorteil wiederherzustellen.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhīṣma frames the coming story as a decisive clarification of how artha (practical welfare and aims) must be judged through dharma; when society becomes lawless, only dharma can rightly determine what counts as true benefit.
Bhīṣma announces that he will narrate an ancient dharmic history. He sets the scene as a time when the world had become unruly, metaphorically drowned in an ‘ocean of Dānava-nature,’ preparing the listener for a corrective moral exemplum.