Shloka 70
भीमस्य जलान्वेषणं तथा वनविश्रान्तिः
Bhīma’s Search for Water and the Forest Halt
राजासि दक्षिणे कूले भागीरथ्याहमुत्तरे । सखायं मां विजानीहि पाउ्चाल यदि मन्यसे,“गंगाके दक्षिण प्रदेशके तुम राजा हो और उत्तरके भूभागका राजा मैं हूँ। पांचाल! अब यदि उचित समझो तो मुझे अपना मित्र मानो”
rājāsi dakṣiṇe kūle bhāgīrathyāham uttare | sakhāyaṃ māṃ vijānīhi pāñcāla yadi manyase ||
Vaiśaṃpāyana said: “You are the king on the southern bank of the Bhāgīrathī, and I am the king of the northern tract. O Pāñcāla, if you deem it fitting, know me as your friend.”
वैशमग्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights political ethics: recognizing shared status and geography to propose friendship and alliance, suggesting that prudent rulers seek amity through respectful, mutually beneficial relations rather than hostility.
A speaker identifies the territorial division along the Bhāgīrathī—one ruler on the southern bank and the other on the northern—and formally invites the Pāñcāla ruler to accept him as a friend, indicating a diplomatic approach to inter-kingdom relations.