Shloka 39

Udyoga Parva 142: Vidura’s warning to Kuntī and Kuntī’s resolve to meet Karṇa

Gaṅgātīra encounter begins

Devanagari script

नकुलः सहदेवश्व सात्यकिश्न महारथ: । शुक्लकेयूरकण्ठत्रा: शुक्लमाल्याम्बरावृता:,“नकुल, सहदेव तथा महारथी सात्यकि--ये तीन नरश्रेष्ठ मुझे स्वप्नमें श्वेत भुजबन्द, श्वेत कण्ठहार, श्वेत वस्त्र और श्वेत मालाओंसे विभूषित हो उत्तम नरयान (पालकी)-पर चढ़े दिखायी दिये हैं। ये तीनों ही श्वेत छत्र और श्वेत वस्त्रोंसे सुशोभित थे

Transliteration

sañjaya uvāca |

nakulaḥ sahadevaś ca sātyakiś ca mahārathaḥ |

śukla-keyūra-kaṇṭha-trāḥ śukla-mālyāmbara-āvṛtāḥ |

Translation

Sañjaya sprach: „Im Traum sah ich Nakula, Sahadeva und den großen Wagenkämpfer Sātyaki—jene Vorzüglichsten unter den Männern—geschmückt mit weißen Armreifen und weißem Halsschmuck, in Weiß gekleidet und mit weißen Girlanden bekränzt. Sie erschienen mir auf einem vortrefflichen, von Menschen getragenen Gefährt und strahlten unter einem weißen Sonnenschirm und in weißen Gewändern.“

Word by Word

• {'sañjaya uvāca': 'Sanjaya said', 'nakulaḥ': 'Nakula (one of the Pāṇḍava twins)', 'sahadevaḥ': 'Sahadeva (one of the Pāṇḍava twins)', 'sātyakiḥ': 'Sātyaki (Yādava hero, ally of the Pāṇḍavas)', 'mahārathaḥ': 'great chariot-warrior

• an elite combatant', 'śukla': 'white

• bright (often used in omens/portents)', 'keyūra': 'armlet

• arm-ornament', 'kaṇṭha-trā': 'neck-ornament/necklet (protective or decorative)', 'mālya': 'garland', 'ambara': 'garment

• clothing', 'āvṛta': 'covered, clad, enveloped', 'chatra (implied by context)': 'parasol

• royal umbrella', 'nara-yāna (implied by context)': 'man-borne vehicle/palanquin'}

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Sanjaya
• Nakula
• Sahadeva
• Satyaki
• white armlets (śukla-keyūra)
• white neck-ornaments (śukla-kaṇṭha-trā)
• white garlands (śukla-mālya)
• white garments (śukla-ambara)
• white parasol (śukla-chatra, contextual)
• palanquin/man-borne conveyance (nara-yāna, contextual)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse underscores how, on the eve of great ethical crisis, signs and portents are read as warnings: even the valorous are subject to mortality, and the march toward war can become inexorable when dharma is strained and reconciliation fails.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sanjaya reports a dream-vision in which Nakula, Sahadeva, and Sātyaki appear adorned entirely in white and borne in a royal conveyance with a white parasol—an ominous premonition within the Udyoga Parva’s pre-battle atmosphere.