Shloka 3
Adhyāya 59: On Giving to the Asker and Supporting the Non-asking (याचक-अयाचक-दाने धर्मः)
क्षत्रियाश्व भूगून् सर्वान् वधिष्यन्ति नराधिप । आ गर्भादनुकृन्तन्तो दैवदण्डनिपीडिता:
kṣatriyāś ca bhṛgūn sarvān vadhiṣyanti narādhipa | ā garbhād anukṛntanto daivadaṇḍanipīḍitāḥ ||
Vyavavana said: “O king, the Kṣatriyas will slay all the Bhṛgus. Driven by the pressure of divine retribution, they will cut them down relentlessly—even from the womb.”
व्यववन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how collective violence can be portrayed as driven by daiva (fated/divine chastisement), warning that when adharma ripens into retribution, it can become indiscriminate and extreme—raising ethical alarm about vengeance that violates basic human and dharmic limits.
The speaker foretells a massacre: Kṣatriyas will attack the Bhṛgu lineage and, under the compulsion of “divine punishment,” will slaughter them utterly, described hyperbolically as extending even to those still in the womb.