Shloka 9

Tīrtha-yātrā: Prayāga-saṅgama and Gayaśiras—Rājarṣi Gaya’s Mahāyajña

Devanagari script

भरतस्य च वीरस्य सार्वभौमस्य पार्थिव । ध्रुव॑ प्राप्स्यसि दुष्प्रापाललोकांस्तीर्थपरिप्लुत:,'भूपाल! भरतनन्दन! आप भी तीर्थोमें नहाकर राजा कार्तवीर्य अर्जुन, राजर्षि अष्टक, लोमपाद और भूमण्डलमें सर्वत्र विदित सम्राट्‌ वीरवर भरतको मिलनेवाले दुर्लभ लोकोंको अवश्य प्राप्त कर लेंगे

Transliteration

Vaiśampāyana uvāca: bharatasya ca vīrasya sārvabhaumasya pārthiva, dhruvaṁ prāpsyasi duṣprāpān lokāṁs tīrtha-pariplutaḥ.

Translation

Vaiśampāyana said: “O king, you too—purified by bathing at the sacred fords—will surely attain those hard-to-reach worlds that were won by the heroic emperor Bharata, the universal sovereign. The merit of pilgrimage, when undertaken with discipline and reverence, leads one toward the exalted destinies reached by the righteous of old.”

Word by Word

भरतस्यof Bharata

चand

वीरस्यof the hero/valiant one

सार्वभौमस्यof the universal sovereign

पार्थिवO king

ध्रुवम्surely, certainly

प्राप्स्यसिyou will attain

दुष्प्रापान्hard-to-attain

लोकान्worlds/realms

तीर्थपरिप्लुतःbathed/immersed by (visiting) tīrthas; having performed tīrtha-baths

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

Vaiśampāyana

Bharata

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Cross References

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Pilgrimage and ritual purification, when aligned with dharma, are portrayed as powerful means of accruing merit that can lead to exalted posthumous realms—comparable to those attained by exemplary righteous kings like Bharata.

What is happening in the narrative?

Vaiśampāyana addresses a king and assures him that, having bathed at sacred tīrthas, he will certainly attain the difficult-to-reach worlds associated with the great emperor Bharata—affirming the spiritual efficacy of the tīrtha-journey.