Shloka 14
अक्षदेवन-प्रवर्तनम् | Commencement of the Dice Game
सत्यपराक्रमी सात्यकिने युधिष्ठिरके लिये छत्र धारण किया तथा अर्जुन और भीमसेनने व्यजन डुलाये ।। चामरे चापि शुद्धे द्वे यमौ जगृहतुस्तथा । उपागृह्नाद् यमिन्द्राय पुराकल्पे प्रजापति:
cāmare cāpi śuddhe dve yamau jagṛhatuḥ tathā | upāgṛhṇād yam indrāya purākalpe prajāpatiḥ ||
Duryodhana said: “The two pure yak-tail fans (cāmaras) were likewise taken up by the twin brothers. It is said that in a former age Prajāpati himself once held such a fan for Indra.” In this description, the royal service rendered to Yudhiṣṭhira is deliberately framed as an honor of the highest order—comparing his reception to divine precedent—thereby underscoring the ethical tension of the scene: outward reverence and courtly splendor masking inner rivalry and impending conflict.
दुर्योधन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how symbols of royal service (like the cāmara) communicate legitimacy and supreme honor; ethically, it warns that external reverence and ritual propriety can coexist with concealed envy and political hostility.
Duryodhana describes the ceremonial attendance at Yudhiṣṭhira’s court: the twin brothers hold the two pure cāmaras, and the scene is elevated by a mythic comparison—Prajāpati once performed the same service for Indra—intensifying the grandeur that provokes Duryodhana’s inner agitation.