Shloka 30
पाण्डवानां वनप्रस्थानवर्णनम् / The Pāṇḍavas’ Departure for the Forest
Vidura’s Report and Portents
द्रौपदी बोली--भरतवंशशिरोमणे! यदि आप मुझे वर देते हैं तो मैं यही माँगती हूँ कि सम्पूर्ण धर्मका आचरण करनेवाले राजा युधिष्ठिर दासभावसे मुक्त हो जायेँ। जिससे मेरे मनस्वी पुत्र प्रतिविन्ध्यको अज्ञानवश दूसरे राजकुमार ऐसा न कह सकें कि यह “दासपुत्र' है।।
draupady uvāca—bharatavaṁśa-śiromaṇe! yadi tvaṁ me varaṁ dadāsi, tad etad eva vṛṇe—sarva-dharma-parāyaṇaḥ rājā yudhiṣṭhiraḥ dāsabhāvāt pramucyatām; yena me manasvinaḥ putrāḥ, viśeṣataḥ prativindhyaḥ, ajñānavaśād anyaiḥ rāja-kumārakaiḥ “dāsa-putraḥ” iti na vaktavyaḥ. rājaputraḥ purā bhūtvā yathā nānyaḥ pumān kvacit; rājabhir lālitasya asya na yuktā dāsaputratā.
Draupadī said: “O crest-jewel of the Bharata line! If you grant me a boon, this is what I ask: let King Yudhiṣṭhira—devoted to the full practice of dharma—be released from the condition of slavery. Then my high-spirited sons, especially Prativindhya, will not be ignorantly taunted by other princes as ‘a slave’s son.’ For just as no man, having once been a prince, is ever known to become ‘slave-born,’ so it is utterly unfitting that my son—reared and cherished among kings—should bear the stigma of being called a slave’s son.”
धृतराष्ट उवाच
Educational Q&A
The passage highlights dharma as inseparable from dignity: even when power can grant boons, the ethical priority is to remove unjust bondage and the social stain it creates for the innocent—especially children—so that lineage and honor are not wrongfully degraded.
After the humiliation in the royal assembly, Draupadī is offered a boon by Dhṛtarāṣṭra. She asks first that Yudhiṣṭhira be freed from slavery, emphasizing that otherwise her son Prativindhya could be mocked as a ‘slave’s son,’ which she argues is improper for one raised among kings.