Shloka 13
Jarītā–Śārṅgā-saṃvāda: Ākhu-haraṇa and the Approach of Agni (आखुहरणं अग्न्यागमनश्च)
न होतत् कारणं ब्रह्मन्नल्पं सम्प्रतिभाति मे । यद् ददाह सुसंक्रुद्ध: खाण्डवं हव्यवाहन:,विप्रवर! मुझे इसका कोई साधारण कारण नहीं जान पड़ता, जिसके लिये कुपित होकर हव्यवाहन अग्निने समूचे खाण्डववनको भस्म कर दिया
Janamejaya uvāca |
na hotat kāraṇaṃ brahmann alpaṃ sampratibhāti me |
yad dadāha susaṃkruddhaḥ khāṇḍavaṃ havyavāhanaḥ ||
Janamejaya said: “O Brahman, no small or ordinary cause occurs to me for this—that Havyavāhana (Agni), inflamed with fierce anger, burned the entire Khāṇḍava forest to ashes.”
जनमेजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse foregrounds the epic’s ethical habit of seeking adequate causes for extraordinary events: a vast act of destruction by a deity is presumed to have a weighty moral or cosmic rationale, not a trivial impulse.
Janamejaya, hearing of the Khāṇḍava forest being burned, challenges the idea that it could have happened for a minor reason and asks the sage to explain what provoked Agni (Havyavāhana) to such wrath.