Shloka 18
Nahūṣa’s Pride, the Ṛṣi-Borne Palanquin, and the Search for Indra (नहुष-इन्द्राणी-प्रकरणम्)
मयि क्ुद्धे जगन्न स्यान्मयि सर्व प्रतिष्ठितम् । देवदानवगन्धर्वा: किन्नरोरगराक्षसा:
mayi kruddhe jagan na syān mayi sarvaṁ pratiṣṭhitam | devadānavagandharvāḥ kinnaroragarākṣasāḥ ||
Nahuṣa verkündete in überheblichem Stolz: „Wenn ich zürne, wird die Welt selbst vergehen; denn alles ist auf mich gegründet. O du mit dem reinen Lächeln, wenn mein Zorn anschwillt, können weder Götter noch Dānavas, weder Gandharvas noch Kinnaras, weder Nāgas noch Rākṣasas, ja nicht einmal alle Welten mir standhalten. Wen ich mit meinen Augen erblicke, dem raube ich sein tejas, seinen Glanz.“
नहुष उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the moral danger of unchecked wrath and self-glorifying pride. By claiming the cosmos depends on him, Nahusha exemplifies adharma as ego-inflation: it destabilizes judgment and threatens social and cosmic order rather than protecting it.
Nahusha is speaking boastfully, asserting that if he becomes angry the world would be destroyed and that no class of beings—gods, demons, Gandharvas, Kinnaras, Nāgas, or Rākṣasas—could oppose him. The statement functions as intimidation and self-assertion within the unfolding tensions of the Udyoga Parva.