Shloka 59
आदि पर्व, अध्याय 96 — काश्यकन्याहरणं, शाल्वसमागमः, अम्बावचनं च
Kāśī princesses taken; encounter with Śālva; Ambā’s declaration
अथ पाणए्डुमुगययां चरन् मैथुनगतमृषिमपश्यन्मृग्यां वर्तमानम्ू । तथैवाद्भुतमनासादितकामरसमतृप्तं च बाणेनाजघान,एक दिन राजा पाण्डुने शिकार खेलते समय एक मृगरूपधारी ऋषिको मृगीरूपधारिणी अपनी पत्नीके साथ मैथुन करते देखा। वह अद्भुत मृग अभी काम-रसका आस्वादन नहीं कर सका था। उसे अतृप्त अवस्थामें ही राजाने बाणसे मार दिया
atha pāṇḍumṛgayāṃ caran maithunagatam ṛṣim apaśyan mṛgyāṃ vartamānam | tathaivādbhuta-manā asāditakāma-rasam atṛptaṃ ca bāṇenājaghāna |
Vaiśampāyana said: While King Pāṇḍu was roaming on a hunt, he saw a ṛṣi who had assumed the form of a stag, engaged in intercourse with his doe-form wife. In a moment of startled, reckless impulse, the king shot him with an arrow—killing him while he was still unsated, before he had even fully tasted the pleasure of desire. The episode frames a grave ethical lapse: the violence of the hunt, when joined with heedlessness and failure to discern the sacred, becomes a direct transgression against dharma and sets in motion the consequences that follow.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how heedless violence—especially when one fails to recognize what is sacred or protected—becomes adharma and inevitably produces consequences. It also cautions that desire, shock, and impulsiveness can cloud discernment (viveka), turning a socially accepted act (hunting) into a grave moral fault.
King Pāṇḍu, while hunting, sees a stag and doe in intercourse; the stag is actually a ṛṣi in animal form with his wife. Startled and acting rashly, Pāṇḍu shoots the stag with an arrow, killing him while he is still unsated—an act that leads into the ensuing curse narrative.