Shloka 31
Takṣaka’s agency, Parīkṣit’s rites, and Janamejaya’s enthronement (वैयासिक परम्परा-प्रसङ्गः)
क्व ते पुरुषमानित्वं क्व ते वाचस्तथाविधा: । दर्पजा: पितरं द्रष्टा यस्त्वं शवधरं तथा,कहाँ है तुम्हारा पौरषका अभिमान, कहाँ गयीं तुम्हारी वे दर्पभरी बातें? जब तुम अपने पिताको मुर्दा ढोते चुपचाप देख रहे हो!
kva te puruṣamānitvaṃ kva te vācastathāvidhāḥ | darpajāḥ pitaraṃ draṣṭā yastvaṃ śavadharaṃ tathā ||
“Where now is your pride in manly prowess? Where are those very words you once spoke—so full of arrogance? You, who were born of pride, stood by in silence and watched as your own father was carried like a corpse.”
कृश उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse condemns empty bravado: prideful speech and self-proclaimed valor are exposed as hollow when one fails to act with courage and responsibility at a moment of moral testing—especially regarding one’s duty toward one’s father.
Kṛśa addresses someone with sharp reproach, contrasting that person’s earlier arrogant claims with their present passivity: they merely watched while their father was borne like a dead body, highlighting disgrace and the collapse of their supposed heroism.