Shloka 7
पुनरस्य प्रमाणं हि निर्दिष्टं शास्त्रकोविदै: | वेदवादाश्चानुयुगं हसन्तीतीह नः श्रुतम्,शास्त्रज्ञ पुरुषोंने धर्ममें वेदको ही प्रमाण बताया है; किंतु हमने सुना है कि युग-युगमें वेदोंका हास होता है अर्थात् धर्मके सम्बन्धमें जो वेदोंका निश्चय है, वह प्रत्येक युगमें बदलता रहता है
punar asya pramāṇaṃ hi nirdiṣṭaṃ śāstrakovidaiḥ | vedavādāś cānuyugaṃ hasantītiha naḥ śrutam ||
Yudhiṣṭhira said: “Again, the learned in the śāstras have declared that the Veda is the authoritative standard for this (dharma). Yet we have heard that, from age to age, the Vedic pronouncements are ‘laughed at’—that is, the determinations of dharma based on the Veda seem to shift with each yuga.”
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse raises a hermeneutic problem: while śāstra-experts uphold the Veda as the ultimate authority (pramāṇa) for dharma, lived tradition reports that Vedic norms are treated differently across yugas. It highlights the tension between an unchanging scriptural source and changing social-ethical application.
In the Śānti Parva’s dharma-discourse, Yudhiṣṭhira questions how dharma can be firmly grounded if the Veda is said to be the standard, yet its injunctions and interpretations appear to lose force or be re-evaluated from one age to another.