Shloka 10
Droṇa’s Conditional Boon: The Plan to Capture Yudhiṣṭhira (द्रोणेन युधिष्ठिरग्रहणोपायः)
तथा गान्धारराजस्य सुतां वीर: स्वयंवरे । निर्जित्य पृथिवीपालानावहत् पुष्करेक्षण:,कमलनयन वीर श्रीकृष्णने स्वयंवरमें गान्धारराजकी पुत्रीको प्राप्त करके समस्त राजाओंको जीतकर उसके साथ विवाह किया। उस समय अच्छी जातिके घोड़ोंकी भाँति श्रीकृष्णके वैवाहिक रथमें जुते हुए वे असहिष्णु राजालोग कोड़ोंकी मारसे घायल कर दिये गये थे
tathā gāndhārarājasya sutāṃ vīraḥ svayaṃvare | nirjitya pṛthivīpālān āvahat puṣkarekṣaṇaḥ ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “In the svayaṃvara of the king of Gāndhāra, the heroic Puṣkarekṣaṇa won the king’s daughter; having defeated the assembled rulers, he carried her away as his bride.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights a kṣatriya-world ethic in which public contest and victory are treated as conferring social legitimacy—here, in the context of marriage—while also hinting at the moral tension between a woman’s choice (svayaṃvara ideal) and the coercive dynamics of political rivalry.
Vaiśaṃpāyana narrates that the lotus-eyed hero wins the Gāndhāra king’s daughter at her svayaṃvara by defeating the rival kings and then takes her away as his bride.