Shloka 73
Rathaghoṣa–Saṃjñāna: Damayantī’s Inference and the Dispatch of the Envoy (Āraṇyaka-parva, Adhyāya 71)
इति श्रीमहाभारते वनपर्वणि नलोपाख्यानपर्वणि ऋतुपर्णविदर्भगमने एकसप्ततितमो<ध्याय:
iti śrīmahābhārate vanaparvaṇi nalopākhyānaparvaṇi ṛtupārṇavidarbhagamane ekasaptatitamo 'dhyāyaḥ
Thus, in the Śrī Mahābhārata, within the Vana Parva, in the Nalopākhyāna section, in the episode of Ṛtupārṇa’s journey to Vidarbha, ends the seventy-first chapter.
ऋचुपर्ण उवाच
Educational Q&A
This line is a colophon marking the end of a chapter and locating it within the Mahābhārata’s internal structure. Its value is pedagogical: it teaches careful textual orientation—knowing the parva, sub-episode, and narrative setting—so the reader can track context and continuity.
The verse does not advance the plot directly; it signals that the seventy-first chapter concludes at the point describing Ṛtupārṇa’s journey to Vidarbha within the Nalopākhyāna episode of the Vana Parva.