Shloka 45
Brahmacarya-Upāya: Jñāna, Śauca, and the Mind’s Role in Desire (शान्ति पर्व, अध्याय २०७)
त्रेताप्रभत्ति वर्धन्ते ते जना भरतर्षभ,भरतश्रेष्ठ! त्रेतासे वे लोग बढ़ने लगे थे। तदनन्तर त्रेता और द्वापरका महाघोर संध्याकाल उपस्थित होनेपर राजालोग एक दूसरेसे टक्कर लेकर युद्धमें आसक्त हुए
tretāprabhṛti vardhante te janā bharatarṣabha
Bhīṣma said: “From the Tretā age onward, O bull among the Bharatas, those people began to increase and flourish.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse situates social expansion within the yuga framework: from the Tretā age onward populations and polities grow, and in the broader passage this growth is morally ambivalent—prosperity can also intensify rivalry among rulers, testing dharma in governance and restraint.
Bhīṣma continues his yuga-based account to Yudhiṣṭhira, noting that beginning with Tretā-yuga people increased; the surrounding narrative connects later yuga transitions with heightened competition among kings and a tendency toward warfare.