Shloka 15

मन्दर-समुद्रमन्थन-वर्णनम् / Description of the Churning of the Ocean with Mount Mandara

Devanagari script

इस प्रकार श्रीमहाभारत आदिपर्वके अन्तर्गत आस्तीकपर्वमें सर्पोको मातृशाप प्राप्त होनेकी प्रस्तावनासे युक्त पंद्रहवाँ अध्याय पूरा हुआ,सोपस्वेदेषु भाण्डेषु पठचवर्षशतानि च । ततः पज्चशते काले कद्रूपुत्रा विनि:सृता:

Transliteration

sopasvedēṣu bhāṇḍēṣu pañca varṣaśatāni ca | tataḥ pañcaśatē kālē kadrūputrā viniḥsṛtāḥ ||

Translation

After remaining confined in sweat-soaked vessels for five hundred years, and when another five hundred years had passed, the sons of Kadru—the serpents—were finally released. The narrative underscores the long, inescapable working-out of a mother’s curse and the moral weight carried by lineage and past deeds.

Word by Word

सोपस्वेदेषुin (the vessels) with sweating/steaming (i.e., heated/steaming)

भाण्डेषुin vessels/pots

पञ्चfive

वर्षशतानिhundreds of years

चand

ततःthen/thereafter

पञ्चशतेwhen five hundred (years had passed) / at (the time of) five hundred

कालेat the time

कद्रू-पुत्राःthe sons of Kadru (serpents)

विनिःसृताःcame forth/emerged

Speaker

शौनक उवाच

Characters & Entities

Śaunaka

Kadru

Kadruputrāḥ (Nāga serpents)

bhāṇḍa (vessels/containers)

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights the inevitability of karmic consequence and the binding force of a curse: even powerful beings must endure the ordained term, and time itself becomes the instrument through which moral causality unfolds.

What is happening in the narrative?

It states that Kadru’s sons (the serpents) had been kept confined in sweat-soaked vessels for five hundred years, and after another five hundred years elapsed, they emerged—setting the stage for the broader serpent-curse narrative within Āstīka’s episode.