Shloka 36
अनुक्रमणिकाध्यायः (Anukramaṇikā Adhyāya) — Invocation, Narrator Frame, and Textual Scope
राजर्षयश्न बहव: सर्वे समुदिता गुणै: । आपो द्यौ: पृथिवी वायुरन्तरिक्षं दिशस्तथा,इसी प्रकार बहुत-से राजर्षियोंका प्रादुर्भाव हुआ है, जो सब-के-सब शौर्यादि सदगुणोंसे सम्पन्न थे। क्रमश: उसी ब्रह्माण्डसे जल, द्युलोक, पृथ्वी, वायु, अन्तरिक्ष और दिशाएँ भी प्रकट हुई हैं
rājarṣayaś ca bahavaḥ sarve samuditā guṇaiḥ | āpo dyauḥ pṛthivī vāyur antarīkṣaṃ diśas tathā ||
Many royal seers also came into manifestation, all endowed with noble qualities such as valor. In due sequence, from that same cosmic source there also arose the waters, the heavenly realm, the earth, the wind, the mid-space, and the directions—presenting creation as an ordered unfolding in which excellence and cosmic order appear together.
Educational Q&A
The verse links ethical excellence with cosmic order: alongside the emergence of the world’s fundamental domains (waters, heaven, earth, wind, space, directions), exemplary human figures—rājarṣis—also arise, suggesting that virtue and right order are integral to creation, not merely social ideals.
In the opening cosmological account of the Ādi Parva, the text continues listing what manifested in sequence from the primordial source: first many royal seers endowed with virtues, and then key cosmic constituents and spatial divisions (elements/realms and directions).