Shloka 12
Droṇācārya’s Assessment of the Pāṇḍavas: Nīti, Kāla, and Intelligence (विराटपर्व, अध्याय २६)
नदीकुज्जेषु तीर्थेषु ग्रामेषु नगरेषु च । आश्रमेषु च रम्येषु पर्वतेषु गुहासु च,'पाण्डव छिपकर किसी गुप्त स्थानमें निवास करते होंगे; अत: जो कार्यसाधनमें तत्पर, उन्हें अच्छी तरह पहचाननेवाले, बुद्धिमानीसे स्वयं भी छिपकर कार्य करनेवाले और अत्यन्त कुशल हों, ऐसे अनेक गुप्तचर नदी-तटवर्ती कुंजों, तीर्थों, गाँवों, नगरों, रमणीय आश्रमों, पर्वतों तथा गुफाओंमें जा-जाकर उनकी खोज करें”
nadīkūñjeṣu tīrtheṣu grāmeṣu nagareṣu ca | āśrameṣu ca ramyeṣu parvateṣu guhāsu ca ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “Let many secret agents—energetic in accomplishing their mission, intelligent, skilled at recognizing people, and themselves adept at working in concealment—go about searching for the Pāṇḍavas. They should look in riverbank groves, at sacred fords, in villages and cities, in pleasant hermitages, and also in mountains and caves.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights a pragmatic aspect of kingship: careful intelligence-gathering and disciplined secrecy can be necessary tools in protecting or pursuing rightful aims. Ethically, it implies that strategy should be guided by discernment and purpose, not by reckless suspicion—agents must be competent, restrained, and focused on the mission.
The narration describes an organized search for the Pāṇḍavas, who are believed to be living in concealment. The instruction is to deploy numerous skilled spies to look across likely hiding places—river groves, pilgrimage sites, settlements, hermitages, mountains, and caves.