Shloka 27
अध्याय ९५: चित्राङ्गदस्य गन्धर्वेण सह संग्रामः तथा विचित्रवीर्यस्य राज्याभिषेकः
Chitrāṅgada’s duel with the Gandharva and Vicitravīrya’s consecration
पूर्णा हस्तिगजा श्वैश्व बहुरत्नसमाकुलाम् । ममज्जेव मही तस्य भूरिभारावपीडिता
pūrṇā hastigajā śvaśva bahuratnasamākulām | mamajjeva mahī tasya bhūribhārāvapīḍitā ||
Vaiśampāyana said: The earth, crowded with elephants and horses and teeming with many kinds of jewels, seemed to sink beneath his realm, as though pressed down by an immense weight—an image of prosperity so vast that it became a burden upon the world itself.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
Prosperity and power, though signs of successful rule, carry weight and consequences; the verse uses the earth ‘sinking’ as a moral image that excessive accumulation and vast dominion can become a burden requiring restraint and responsible governance.
The narrator describes a king’s realm as extraordinarily rich—full of elephants, horses, and treasures—so abundant that the earth itself is poetically portrayed as sinking under the sheer load of that prosperity.