Shloka 23
कि हि शक्यं मया कर्तु यद् वृद्धानां त्वया नृप । पुरा कथयतां नून॑ न श्रुतं धर्मवादिनाम्,भीष्म! तुमने पहले बड़े-बूढ़े धर्मोपदेशकोंके मुखसे यदि यह धर्मसंगत बात, जिसे मैं अभी बताऊँगा नहीं सुनी, तो मैं क्या कर सकता हूँ?
ki hi śakyaṃ mayā kartuṃ yad vṛddhānāṃ tvayā nṛpa | purā kathayatāṃ nūna na śrutaṃ dharmavādinām, bhīṣma |
Shishupala said: “What indeed can I do, O king, if you—Bhīṣma—have surely not heard earlier from the mouths of aged elders, those expounders of dharma, this very point of righteousness that I am now about to state?”
शिशुपाल उवाच
Educational Q&A
Moral authority is traditionally grounded in hearing and learning from elders who expound dharma; Shishupala frames his argument as something any properly instructed elder like Bhishma should already know, using this to challenge Bhishma’s stance.
In the royal assembly context, Shishupala addresses Bhishma and questions how he (Shishupala) can be expected to act differently if Bhishma has not even heard—despite his age and status—the dharmic principle Shishupala is about to assert, sharpening the polemical tone of the debate.