Shloka 3
संजय उवाच शृणु राजन प्रवक्ष्यामि यथावृत्तं नराधिप । राज्ञा यदुक्त भग्नेन तस्मिन् व्यसन आगते
sañjaya uvāca śṛṇu rājan pravakṣyāmi yathāvṛttaṃ narādhipa | rājñā yad uktaṃ bhagnena tasmin vyasana āgate ||
Sañjaya said: “Listen, O King; I shall relate exactly what occurred, O lord of men—what was spoken by that king when he had been broken and calamity had come upon him.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights truthful reporting (yathāvṛttam) and the ethical need to evaluate speech arising from defeat and calamity; it suggests that words spoken in distress reveal character and the consequences of adharma in war.
Sañjaya addresses the king and prepares to recount, exactly as it happened, what a certain king said when overwhelmed—defeated and struck by misfortune—setting up the next lines as a report of that speech.