Shloka 47
Virāṭa-parva Adhyāya 21 — Kīcaka’s clandestine approach and Bhīma’s covert intervention (नर्तनागारे कीचकवध-प्रसङ्गः)
यो निमित्तमनर्थानां बहूनां मम भारत । त॑ चेज्जीवन्तमादित्य: प्रातरभ्युदयिष्यति,भारत! जो मेरे लिये बहुत-से अनर्थोंका कारण बना हुआ है, उसके जीते-जी यदि कल सूर्योदय हो जायगा, तो मैं विष घोलकर पी लूँगी; किंतु कीचकके अधीन नहीं होऊँगी। भीमसेन! कीचकके वशमें पड़नेकी अपेक्षा तुम्हारे सामने प्राण त्याग देना मेरे लिये कल्याणकारी होगा
yo nimittam anarthānāṁ bahūnāṁ mama bhārata | taṁ ced jīvantam ādityaḥ prātar abhyudayiṣyati ||
Bhīmasena said: “O Bhārata, if the sun should rise tomorrow while that man—the very cause of many calamities for me—still lives, then I will drink poison and die. I will not submit to Kīcaka’s control; to give up my life before you would be better for me than falling under Kīcaka’s power.”
भीमसेन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The passage foregrounds the ethical priority of protecting dignity and resisting coercion: submission to adharma (forced domination) is portrayed as worse than death, and it calls the protector (Bhīma) to act decisively against the perpetrator (Kīcaka).
In the Matsya kingdom during the Pāṇḍavas’ incognito exile, Kīcaka has become the source of grave danger to Draupadī. The statement conveys that if Kīcaka remains alive until the next sunrise, she would rather die than be forced under his power—pressing Bhīma toward immediate intervention.