Shloka 3
Udyoga Parva, Adhyāya 148: Vāsudeva’s Report—Mobilization and the Nīti Sequence
Sāma–Bheda–Daṇḍa
सोम: प्रजापति: पूर्व कुरूणां वंशवर्धन: । सोमाद् बभूव षष्ठो5यं ययातिर्नहुषात्मज:,“सबसे पहले प्रजापति सोम हुए, जो कौरववंशकी वृद्धिके आदि कारण हैं। सोमसे छठी पीढ़ीमें नहुषपुत्र ययातिका जन्म हुआ
somaḥ prajāpatiḥ pūrvaṃ kurūṇāṃ vaṃśavardhanaḥ | somād babhūva ṣaṣṭho ’yaṃ yayātir nahuṣātmajaḥ ||
Vāyu sprach: „Am Anfang war Soma, der Prajāpati, die erste Quelle, durch die das Geschlecht der Kurus wuchs und erblühte. Von Soma wurde in der sechsten Generation Yayāti geboren, der Sohn des Nahuṣa.“
वायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse grounds the Kuru line in a sacred genealogy, implying that political authority and responsibility (dharma of kingship) are tied to remembered lineage; it frames later ethical choices in the war narrative as actions of heirs to an ancient, divinely connected tradition.
Vāyu is recounting the ancestral succession: Soma is presented as an early Prajāpati and a key progenitor for the Kurus, and Yayāti is identified as born in the sixth generation from Soma, specifically as the son of Nahuṣa.