Shloka 18
नासत्य और दखस्न--ये दोनों अश्विनीकुमार बताये गये हैं। ये दोनों अष्टम आदित्य महात्मा सूर्यके पुत्र हैं ।। ते च पूर्व सुराश्षैति द्विविधा: पितर: स्मृता: । त्वष्टश्वैवात्मज: श्रीमान् विश्वरूपो महायशा:
nāsatyaś ca dasraś ca—etau dvāv aśvinīkumārau proktau | etau cāṣṭama ādityau mahātmānau sūryasya putrau || te ca pūrve surāśvaitī dvividhāḥ pitaraḥ smṛtāḥ | tvaṣṭā caivātmajaḥ śrīmān viśvarūpo mahāyaśāḥ ||
Bhīṣma said: “Nāsatya and Dasra are known as the two Aśvinīkumāras. These two, illustrious and great-souled, are also counted as the eighth Ādityas, sons of Sūrya. And among the ancient lineages are remembered the twofold Pitṛs; and Tvaṣṭṛ’s splendid son, the highly renowned Viśvarūpa.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse preserves traditional identifications within sacred genealogy: it names the Aśvins (Nāsatya and Dasra), links them to the solar order (Ādityas, sons of Sūrya), and recalls ancestral categories (Pitṛs) and notable divine lineages (Tvaṣṭṛ and Viśvarūpa). The ethical context is respect for received tradition and the ordered understanding of divine and ancestral relations that undergird dharma and ritual.
In Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma is instructing Yudhiṣṭhira and enumerating or clarifying divine beings and lineages. Here he identifies the twin Aśvins by name, states their placement among the Ādityas as sons of the Sun, and then mentions ancient Pitṛ classifications and the figure Viśvarūpa as Tvaṣṭṛ’s son.