Shloka 21
Vivāha-dharma: Kanyā-pradāna, Śulka, and Pāṇigrahaṇa-niṣṭhā (अनुशासन पर्व, अध्याय ४४)
कि नु तद्विस्मृतं शक्र न तनन््मनसि ते स्थितम् | गौतमेनासि यन्मुक्तो भगाड़कपरिचिह्वित:
ki nu tad vismṛtaṃ śakra na tan manasi te sthitam | gautamenāsi yan mukto bhagāṅka-paricihnitaḥ ||
Vipula said: “O Śakra (Indra), have you truly forgotten that deed? Does its memory not remain fixed in your mind? For it was after the sage Gautama marked your body with the signs of your transgression that he nevertheless spared your life and released you.”
विपुल उवाच
Educational Q&A
Even the powerful are answerable to dharma: wrongdoing leaves consequences and public marks, and one should not forget the moral lesson of punishment tempered by mercy.
Vipula rebukes Indra, reminding him of an earlier episode in which the sage Gautama punished him by branding him with marks of disgrace yet still spared his life—an appeal to Indra’s memory and conscience.