Shloka 11

Nāga-āyatana-darśana-pratīkṣā — The Brāhmaṇa’s Request and Waiting on the Gomatī

Devanagari script

इदं शतसहस्राद्धि भारताख्यानविस्तरात्‌

Transliteration

idaṁ śatasahasrāddhi bhāratākhyānavistarāt

Translation

Janamejaya said: “This account is indeed drawn from the expanded narration of the Bhārata—the great tale that extends to a hundred thousand verses.”

Word by Word

• इदम्: this (text/thing)
• इदम्: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: इदम्
• Form: Neuter, Nominative, Singular

• शतसहस्रात्: from a hundred thousand (verses/units)
• शतसहस्रात्: Apadana
• Type: Noun
• Root: शतसहस्र
• Form: Neuter, Ablative, Singular

• हि: indeed/for
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: हि

• भारताख्यानविस्तरात्: from the extensive narration of the Bhārata
• भारताख्यानविस्तरात्: Apadana
• Type: Noun
• Root: भारत-आख्यान-विस्तर
• Form: Masculine, Ablative, Singular

Speaker

जनमेजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Janamejaya
• Bhārata (Mahābhārata)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse underscores the authority and vastness of the Mahābhārata tradition, presenting the teaching as grounded in a comprehensive, widely transmitted corpus (the ‘hundred-thousand’ Bhārata) rather than a narrow or isolated account.

What is happening in the narrative?

Janamejaya, as the inquiring listener, frames the discussion by referring to the Mahābhārata’s expanded form, indicating that what is being recounted belongs to (or is extracted from) the extensive Bhārata narration.