Shloka 1
गान्धारीपुत्रोत्पत्तिः — The Birth of Gāndhārī’s Hundred Sons (and Yuyutsu); Omens and Counsel on Succession
इस प्रकार श्रीमह्याभारत आदिपर्वके अन्तर्गत सम्भवपर्वमें विचित्रवीरयके पुत्रोंकी उत्पत्तिविषयक एक सौ पॉचवाँ अध्याय पूरा हुआ ॥/ १०५ ॥। अपन ह< बक। है २ >> षर्डाधिकशततमोब< ध्याय: महर्षि माण्डव्यका शूलीपर चढ़ाया जाना जनमेजय उवाच कि कृतं कर्म धर्मेण येन शापमुपेयिवान् । कस्य शापाच्च ब्रह्म॒र्षे: शूद्रयोनावजायत
Janamejaya uvāca: kiṁ kṛtaṁ karma dharmeṇa yena śāpam upeyivān? kasya śāpāc ca brahmarṣeḥ śūdrayonāv ajāyata?
Janamejaya asked: “O Brahmin, what deed did Dharma (Dharmarāja) perform that caused him to incur a curse? And by whose curse—by which brahmarṣi’s—was he born into a Śūdra womb?”
जनमेजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
Even Dharma personified is subject to moral scrutiny: actions have consequences, and the narrative probes how justice, punishment, and proportionality can be questioned—especially when a curse results in a diminished birth.
Janamejaya presses the storyteller to explain the backstory: what act led Dharma/Dharmarāja to be cursed, and which brahmarṣi’s curse caused him to be born in a Śūdra womb—introducing the ethical episode connected with the sage Māṇḍavya.