अनुक्रमणिकाध्यायः (Anukramaṇikā Adhyāya) — Invocation, Narrator Frame, and Textual Scope
तस्मिन्नुपरते शब्दे दिश: सर्वा निनादयन् | अन्तर्हितानां भूतानां नि:ःस्वनस्तुमुलो5भवत्,दर्शकोंका वह तुमुल शब्द बन्द होनेपर सम्पूर्ण दिशाओंको प्रतिध्वनित करती हुई अदृश्य भूतों--देवताओंकी यह सम्मिलित आवाज (आकाशवाणी) गूँज उठी--'ये पाण्डव ही हैं!
tasminn uparate śabde diśaḥ sarvā ninādayan | antarhitānāṃ bhūtānāṃ niḥsvanas tumulo 'bhavat |
When that sound had ceased, all the directions seemed to resound in echo; then there arose a tumultuous cry—the reverberating voice of unseen beings, as if gods speaking from the sky—proclaiming, “These are the Pāṇḍavas!”
The verse highlights how, in epic narrative, moral and cosmic order is signaled through omens and authoritative ‘unseen’ voices: the rightful identity of the Pāṇḍavas is affirmed not merely by human testimony but by a wider, quasi-divine confirmation that frames their role in the unfolding dharmic history.
After a prior loud sound stops, the quarters of space seem to echo; then a great uproar-like proclamation arises from invisible beings—an aural omen (ākāśavāṇī-like)—declaring that the persons being referred to are the Pāṇḍavas.