Shloka 9
आशा-कृशता उपाख्यानम्
The Episode on the Emaciation Caused by Hope
सुमित्रो नाम राजर्षिहैहयो मृगयां गत: । ससार स मृगं विद्ध्वा बाणेनानतपर्वणा
Sumitro nāma rājarṣir haihayo mṛgayāṁ gataḥ | sasāra sa mṛgaṁ viddhvā bāṇenānataparvaṇā ||
Bhishma said: “There was a royal sage named Sumitra, a Haihaya by lineage. Once he went into the forest for hunting. Having struck a deer with an arrow whose joints were bent downward, he began to pursue the wounded animal.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse sets up an ethical narrative: even a rājarṣi can be drawn into violence through hunting, and the consequences of harming living beings become the ground for later moral reflection on restraint, responsibility, and dharma.
Bhishma introduces King Sumitra of the Haihaya line. Sumitra goes hunting in the forest, wounds a deer with a distinctive arrow, and then chases the injured animal—initiating the episode that will unfold in the following verses.