Shloka 21
पाण्डवानां वनप्रस्थानवर्णनम् / The Pāṇḍavas’ Departure for the Forest
Vidura’s Report and Portents
अजुन उवाच ईशो राजा पूर्वमासीद् ग्लहे नः कुन्तीसुतो धर्मराजो महात्मा । ईशस्त्वयं कस्य पराजितात्मा तज्जानी ध्वं कुरव: सर्व एव
arjuna uvāca | īśo rājā pūrvam āsīd glāhe naḥ kuntīsuto dharmarājo mahātmā | īśas tv ayaṁ kasya parājitātmā taj jānīdhvaṁ kuravaḥ sarva eva ||
Arjuna said: “Formerly, in this game, the king—Dharma-rāja Yudhiṣṭhira, the great-souled son of Kuntī—was indeed our rightful lord and thus had the authority to stake us. But once he had lost even his own person, whose lord was he then? Let all the Kurus consider this point.”
अजुन उवाच
Educational Q&A
Authority depends on legitimate agency: once a person has lost his own freedom (having staked and lost himself), he no longer has the moral or legal standing to dispose of others. Arjuna frames this as a dharmic inquiry into consent, ownership, and the limits of power.
In the Kuru assembly during the dice-game aftermath, Arjuna challenges the validity of the Pandavas being staked after Yudhiṣṭhira has already lost himself. He urges the Kurus to deliberate on whether Yudhiṣṭhira could still be their ‘lord’ and thus capable of wagering them.