Shloka 22

मान्धातृ-जन्म-चरितम्

The Birth and Career Account of Māndhātṛ

Devanagari script

अनेन विधिना राजन्‌ मयैतदुपपादितम्‌ । अब्भक्षणं त्वया राजन्‌ न युक्त कृतमद्य वै,“राजन! उक्त विधिसे इस जलको मैंने ऐसा शक्तिसम्पन्न कर दिया था कि इसको पीनेसे एक महाबली, महापराक्रमी और तपोबल सम्पन्न पुत्र उत्पन्न हो जो अपने बल- पराक्रमसे देवराज इन्द्रको भी यमलोक पहुँचा सके। उसी जलको तुमने आज पी लिया, यह अच्छा नहीं किया

Transliteration

lomaśa uvāca | anena vidhinā rājan mayaitad upapāditam | abbhakṣaṇaṁ tvayā rājan na yuktaṁ kṛtam adya vai |

Translation

Lomaśa sprach: „O König, nach dieser vorgeschriebenen Weise habe ich dieses Wasser bereitet und mit Kraft versehen. Doch heute hast du es getrunken; das war keine angemessene Tat. Es sollte in der vorgesehenen Art genommen werden, damit es einen mächtigen, heroischen, aus Askesekraft geborenen Sohn hervorbringe, dessen Stärke sogar Indra in Yamas Reich senden könnte. Es anders zu verzehren ist sittlich ungehörig und vereitelt den Zweck des Ritus.“

Word by Word

• {'anena vidhinā': 'by this method/rite

• according to this prescribed procedure', 'rājan': 'O king (vocative address)', 'mayā': 'by me', 'etat': 'this (thing), i.e., this water/arrangement', 'upapāditam': 'prepared, arranged, duly effected

• made efficacious', 'abbhakṣaṇam': 'drinking/consumption of water (lit. ‘water-eating’)', 'tvayā': 'by you', 'na yuktam': 'not proper, not fitting, not in accordance with propriety/dharma', 'kṛtam': 'done', 'adya': 'today', 'vai': 'indeed, certainly (emphatic particle)'}

Speaker

लोमश उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Lomaśa
• rājan (the king addressed)
• water (empowered/ritually prepared)
• Indra
• Yama (Yamaloka)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Ritual power and intended outcomes depend on correct procedure and ethical restraint; acting impulsively—especially by a king—can negate a carefully prepared dharmic purpose.

What is happening in the narrative?

Lomaśa rebukes the king for drinking a ritually empowered water that had been prepared for a specific purpose—producing an extraordinarily powerful, tapas-endowed son—warning that the king’s act was improper and undermines that intended result.