Shloka 8

Abhimanyu’s Śrāddha; Vyāsa’s Assurance of the Unborn Heir (अभिमन्योः श्राद्धं तथा गर्भरक्षणोपदेशः)

Devanagari script

यद्‌ दौहित्रवधं मेउद्य न ख्यापयसि शत्रुहन्‌ | तद्‌ भागिनेयनिधन तत्त्वेनाचक्ष्व मे प्रभो

Transliteration

yad dauhitravadhaṁ me ’dya na khyāpayasi śatruhan | tad bhāgineyanidhanaṁ tattvenācakṣva me prabho ||

Translation

“O slayer of foes, since you do not tell me today about the killing of my daughter’s son, then, O lord, relate to me truthfully and in full the account of my sister’s son’s death.”

Word by Word

• {'yad': 'since, because', 'dauhitra': 'daughter’s son

• grandson through a daughter', 'vadha': 'killing, slaying', 'me': 'to me

• my', 'adya': 'today, now', 'na': 'not', 'khyāpayasi': 'you inform, you make known', 'śatruhan': 'slayer of enemies (vocative epithet)', 'tad': 'then

• therefore', 'bhāgineya': 'sister’s son

• nephew', 'nidhana': 'death, destruction', 'tattvena': 'in truth

• as it really is', 'ācakṣva': 'tell, relate (imperative)', 'prabho': 'O lord, O master (vocative)'}

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Vaiśampāyana (speaker)
• Unnamed addressee addressed as Śatruhan/Prabhu
• Dauhitra (grandson through a daughter)
• Bhāgineya (nephew)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse foregrounds the ethical demand for truthful, complete speech (tattvena) in moments of crisis: withholding grave news about a loved one’s death is treated as a moral failure, and the listener insists on an accurate account.

What is happening in the narrative?

A grieving elder presses a respected warrior (addressed as ‘slayer of foes’ and ‘lord’) to disclose, without concealment, the true details of the death of a close young relative—described both as a daughter’s son (dauhitra) and as a sister’s son (bhāgineya).