Shloka 25
Āstīka’s Commission and Approach to Janamejaya’s Sarpa-satra (आस्तीक-प्रेषणं यज्ञप्रवेशोपक्रमश्च)
मन्त्री बोले--राजन्! समस्त शस्त्रधारियोंमें श्रेष्ठ तुम्हारे पिता भूपाल परीक्षित्का सदा महाबाहु पाण्डुकी भाँति हिंसक पशुओंको मारनेका स्वभाव था और युद्धमें वे उन्हींकी भाँति सम्पूर्ण धनुर्थर वीरोंमें श्रेष्ठ सिद्ध होते थे। एक दिनकी बात है, वे सम्पूर्ण राजकार्यका भार हमलोगोंपर रखकर वनमें शिकार खेलनेके लिये गये। वहाँ उन्होंने पंखयुक्त बाणसे एक हिंसक पशुको बींध डाला। बींधकर तुरंत ही गहन वनमें उसका पीछा किया || २२-- २४ ।। पदातिर्बद्धनिस्त्रिंशस्ततायुधकलापवान् । न चाससाद गहने मृगं नष्टं पिता तव,वे तलवार बाँधे पैदल ही चल रहे थे। उनके पास बाणोंसे भरा हुआ विशाल तूणीर था। वह घायल पशु उस घने वनमें कहीं छिप गया। तुम्हारे पिता बहुत खोजनेपर भी उसे पा न सके
padātir baddha-nistriṁśas tatāyudha-kalāpavān | na cāsasāda gahane mṛgaṁ naṣṭaṁ pitā tava ||
The minister said: “O King! Among all who bear arms, your father, King Parīkṣit, was ever the foremost. Like mighty-armed Pāṇḍu, he was by nature one who slew fierce beasts; and in war, like him, he proved the best of all heroic bowmen. One day, having laid the whole burden of royal business upon us, he went into the forest to sport at the hunt. There he pierced a savage creature with a feathered arrow, and, having struck it, at once pursued it into the deep thicket. He went on foot, his sword fastened at his side, furnished with a full array of weapons, and bearing a great quiver filled with arrows. Yet the wounded beast vanished in that dense wood; and though he searched long, your father could not find it.”
जनमेजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
Royal strength and the kṣatriya impulse to hunt or punish must be governed by restraint and discernment; otherwise, a seemingly ordinary pursuit can become the doorway to adharma and cascading consequences.
Parīkṣit, fully armed and moving on foot, follows a wounded beast into a dense forest, but the animal disappears; his failure to find it sets the stage for the frustration and later actions that drive the subsequent moral crisis in the story.