Shloka 4
Kuntī’s Consolation to Draupadī and Lament for the Dispossessed Pandavas (सभा पर्व, अध्याय 70)
दुर्योधन बोला--द्रौपदी! तुम्हारा यह प्रश्न तुम्हारे ही पति महाबली भीम, अर्जुन, सहदेव और नकुलपर छोड़ दिया जाता है। ये ही तुम्हारी पूछी हुई बातका उत्तर दें ।। अनीशथ्ररं विब्रुवन्त्वार्यम ध्ये युधिष्ठिरं तव पाज्चालि हेतो: । कुर्वन्तु सर्वे चानृतं धर्मराजं पाज्चालि त्वं मोक्ष्यसे दासभावात्,पांचालि! इन श्रेष्ठ राजाओंके बीच ये लोग यह स्पष्ट कह दें कि युधिष्ठिरको तुम्हें दाँवपर रखनेका कोई अधिकार नहीं था। सभी पाण्डव मिलकर धर्मराज युधिष्ठिरको झूठा ठहरा दें। फिर पांचालि! तुम दास्यभावसे मुक्त कर दी जाओगी
duryodhana uvāca—draupadi! tava ayam praśnaḥ tavaiva patīṃ mahābalān bhīmam arjunam sahadevam nakulam ca prati nidhīyatām; ete eva tava pṛṣṭasya vacasas uttaraṃ bruvantu. anīśvaram vibruvantu āryam adya yudhiṣṭhiram tava pāñcāli hetoḥ; kurvantu sarve cānṛtaṃ dharmarājaṃ; pāñcāli tvaṃ mokṣyase dāsabhāvāt.
Duryodhana said: “Draupadī, let this question of yours be put to your own husbands—mighty Bhīma, Arjuna, Sahadeva, and Nakula. Let them themselves answer what you have asked. Let them declare here, in the presence of these noble kings, that Yudhiṣṭhira had no authority to stake you. Let all the Pāṇḍavas together brand Dharmarāja Yudhiṣṭhira as speaking falsely; then, O Pāñcālī, you will be released from the condition of slavery.”
दुर्योधन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse foregrounds a dharma-question of authority and moral agency: whether a person who has lost his own freedom can legitimately stake another, and whether truth can be manipulated in an assembly to serve power. It highlights how ethical reasoning can be weaponized—Duryodhana frames ‘release’ as conditional upon the Pāṇḍavas publicly discrediting Yudhiṣṭhira, turning justice into coercion.
In the Kuru assembly after the dice game, Draupadī raises a pointed legal-ethical question about Yudhiṣṭhira’s right to wager her. Duryodhana responds by shifting the burden onto the other Pāṇḍavas, demanding they declare Yudhiṣṭhira unauthorized and even false; only then, he claims, would Draupadī be freed from servitude.