Shloka 16
Satyavatī’s Disclosure and the Summoning of Vyāsa
Niyoga for Kuru Succession
मा वधी: कस्य कासीति कि हिनत्सि सुतानिति । पुत्रध्नि सुमहत् पापं सम्प्राप्तं ते सुगर्हितम्,“अरी! इस बालकका वध न कर, तू किसकी कन्या है? कौन है? क्यों अपने ही बेटोंको मारे डालती है। पुत्रधातिनि! तुझे पुत्रहत्याका यह अत्यन्त निन्दित और भारी पाप लगा है!
mā vadhīḥ kasya kāsīti kiṁ hinatsi sutān iti | putradhni sumahat pāpaṁ samprāptaṁ te sugārhitam ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “Do not kill him! Whose daughter are you—who are you? Why do you strike down your own sons? O slayer of children, a very great and deeply censurable sin of filicide has come upon you.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse condemns the killing of one’s own children as a grievous, socially and morally censured sin, reinforcing dharma as restraint from unjust violence—especially against dependents.
A speaker (reported by Vaiśampāyana) urgently stops a woman from killing a child, questions her identity and motive, and declares that the act constitutes a great and blameworthy sin of child-slaying.