Shloka 162
Ādi-parva Adhyāya 3 — Janamejaya’s Rite, Dhaumya’s Parīkṣā, and Uttanka’s Kuṇḍala Quest (सर्पसत्रप्रस्तावना–गुरुपरीक्षा–उत्तङ्कोपाख्यान)
तत्र च मया दृष्टे स्त्रियां तन्त्रेडथिरोप्य पर्ट वयन्त्यौ तस्मिंश्न कृष्णा: सिताश्न तनन््तव: कि तत्,“वहीं मैंने दो स्त्रियाँ देखी, जो करघेपर सूत रखकर कपड़ा बुन रही थीं। उस करघेमें काले और सफेद रंगके सूत लगे थे। वह सब क्या था?
tatra ca mayā dṛṣṭe striyau tantre 'dhirōpya paṭaṃ vayantyau tasmiṃś ca kṛṣṇāḥ sitāś ca tantavaḥ; kiṃ tat?
“There I saw two women weaving cloth, having set the threads upon a loom. On that loom were threads of black and of white. What was that meant to be?”
राम उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames a symbolic inquiry: black and white threads woven together suggest the intermixture of opposites—merit and demerit, pleasure and pain, auspicious and inauspicious—whose combined strands form the fabric of lived experience. Ethically, it points to how actions (karma) of differing qualities become interwoven and yield a single, complex outcome.
Rama reports a vision-like scene: he sees two women weaving on a loom with black and white threads and asks what this sight signifies. The question invites an interpretive explanation of the allegory within the surrounding discourse.