Shloka 6
Ulūpī–Citravāhinī Saṃvāda: Dhanaṃjaya-patana and Prāya-threat
“तुझ दुर्बुद्धिको धिक्कार है, तू निश्चय ही क्षत्रियधर्मसे भ्रष्ट हो गया है, क्योंकि युद्धके लिये आये हुए मेरा स्वागत-सत्कार तू सामनीतिसे कर रहा है ।। न त्वया पुरुषार्थो हि कश्चिदस्तीह जीवता । यस्त्व॑ स्त्रीवद् यथाप्राप्तं मां साम्ना प्रत्यगृह्नथा:,“तूने संसारमें जीवित रहकर भी कोई पुरुषार्थ नहीं किया। तभी तो एक स्त्रीकी भाँति तू यहाँ युद्धके लिये आये हुए मुझे शान्तिपूर्वक साथ लेनेके लिये चेष्टा कर रहा है
tujha durbuddhiko dhikkāra hai, tvaṁ niścaya hī kṣatriyadharmase bhraṣṭa ho gayā hai, kyoṅki yuddhake liye āe hue merā svāgata-satkāra tū sāmānītise kar rahā hai. na tvayā puruṣārtho hi kaścid astīha jīvatā | yas tvam strīvad yathāprāptaṁ māṁ sāmnā pratyagṛhṇathāḥ ||
‘Shame on your perverse judgment! You have surely fallen away from the kṣatriya code, for you are trying to receive and win me over—though I have come for battle—by the policy of conciliation. Indeed, while living in this world you have achieved no true manly exertion; for like a woman you attempt to take me, who has come as I am (for combat), by peaceful persuasion.’
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse contrasts kṣatriya-dharma (martial honor and readiness to meet a challenger in battle) with sāma-nīti (conciliation). It criticizes using soft diplomacy toward an opponent who has come explicitly for combat, framing it as a lapse from the warrior’s ethical role and as a failure of puruṣārtha (courageous exertion).
A speaker harshly rebukes a kṣatriya for attempting to welcome and pacify an arriving adversary through conciliation rather than responding in the expected martial manner. The opponent is described as having come ‘for battle,’ and the addressee is accused of abandoning the warrior code by trying to ‘take’ him through peaceful persuasion.