Shloka 31

Devanagari script

श्वेतोष्णीषाश्व दृश्यन्ते सर्वे वै शुक्लवासस: । आसनानि च शुभ्राणि सर्वेषामुपलक्षये,“उन सबके सिरपर सफेद पगड़ी और अंगोंमें श्वेत वस्त्र शोभित दिखायी दिये हैं। मैंने उन सबके आसनोंको भी श्वेत वर्णका ही देखा है

Transliteration

sañjaya uvāca |

śvetōṣṇīṣāś ca dṛśyante sarve vai śuklavāsasaḥ |

āsanāni ca śubhrāṇi sarveṣām upalakṣaye ||

Translation

Sañjaya sprach: „Alle sind zu sehen mit weißen Turbanen und weißen Gewändern. Auch bemerke ich, dass die Sitze eines jeden von ihnen weiß sind.“

Word by Word

श्वेतोष्णीषाःwhite turbans

अश्वाःhorses

दृश्यन्तेare seen/appear

सर्वेall

वैindeed

शुक्लवाससःwearing white garments

आसनानिseats

चand

शुभ्राणिwhite/bright

सर्वेषाम्of all (of them)

उपलक्षयेI observe/notice

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

Sañjaya

white turbans (uṣṇīṣa)

white garments (vāsas)

white seats (āsana)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights how external signs—white turbans, white garments, white seats—signal a deliberate atmosphere of solemnity, restraint, and auspicious order in a political assembly. In the Mahābhārata’s ethical frame, such outward propriety can accompany serious deliberation, even when the stakes are the prevention or escalation of war.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya is reporting what he sees in an assembly: the participants are uniformly dressed in white and seated on white seats. The scene-setting emphasizes the formal, ceremonially arranged character of the gathering during the tense pre-war negotiations of the Udyoga Parva.