Shloka 3
पाण्डवानां वनप्रस्थानवर्णनम् / The Pāṇḍavas’ Departure for the Forest
Vidura’s Report and Portents
अन्यं वृणीष्व पतिमाशु भाविनि यस्माद् दास््यं न लभसि देवनेन । अवाच्या वै पतिषु कामवृत्ति- नित्यं दास्ये विदितं तत् तवास्तु
anyaṁ vṛṇīṣva patim āśu bhāvini yasmād dāsyaṁ na labhasi devanenā | avācyā vai patiṣu kāmavṛttiḥ nityaṁ dāsye viditaṁ tat tavāstu, sundarī ||
Karna said: “Choose another husband quickly, O fair one, so that you may not again become someone’s slave through gambling. Conduct guided by one’s own desire toward husbands is not considered blameworthy for a woman such as you. Indeed, in a state of servitude a woman’s freedom of choice is said to be well known—therefore let this condition of slavery be yours, O beautiful one.”
कर्ण उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse functions as a negative ethical example: it shows how power, gambling, and the language of ownership are used to justify humiliation and denial of a woman’s dignity. In the Mahabharata’s moral frame, such speech is aligned with adharma and becomes part of the causal chain leading to catastrophe.
In the Kuru court after Yudhishthira’s loss in the dice game, Draupadi is treated as won property and brought into the assembly. Karna speaks harshly, urging her to choose another husband and asserting that servitude makes such treatment ‘acceptable,’ intensifying the public humiliation central to the Sabha Parva crisis.