Shloka 2
Śālva–Pradyumna Yuddha: Sārathya-kauśala, Astra-pratikāra, Daiva-niyati
Chapter 20
अपश्यं॑ द्वारकां चाहं महाराज हतत्विषम् | निःस्वाध्यायवषट्कारां निर्भूषणवरस्त्रियम्,महाराज! मैंने वहाँ पहुँचकर देखा, द्वारका श्रीहीन हो रही है। वहाँ न तो स्वाध्याय होता है, न वषट्कार। वह पुरी आभूषणोंसे रहित सुन्दरी नारीकी भाँति उदास लग रही थी
apaśyaṁ dvārakāṁ cāhaṁ mahārāja hatatviṣam | niḥsvādhyāyavaṣaṭkārāṁ nirbhūṣaṇavarastriyam ||
Vāsudeva said: “O great king, when I arrived I beheld Dvārakā robbed of her radiance. There was no recitation of sacred study, no ritual exclamation of ‘vaṣaṭ’ in sacrifice. The city looked desolate—like a beautiful woman bereft of ornaments.”
वासुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse links a community’s well-being to dharmic practice: when svādhyāya (sacred learning) and yajña-rites (signaled by the vaṣaṭ call) disappear, the loss is not merely cultural but moral and spiritual, reflected outwardly as the fading of a city’s ‘śrī’ (auspicious radiance).
Vāsudeva reports to the king that upon reaching Dvārakā he found it ominously changed—its brilliance gone and its religious life silent. He conveys this decline through a vivid simile: the city resembles a beautiful woman stripped of her ornaments, suggesting impending misfortune for the Yādava capital.