Shloka 12
साम्ब-हरणम्, बलदेवस्य रोषः, हस्तिनापुर-आकर्षणम्
ऊचुश् च कुपिताः सर्वे बाह्लिकाद्याश् च कौरवाः अराज्यार्हं यदोर् वंशम् अवेक्ष्य मुसलायुधम्
ūcuś ca kupitāḥ sarve bāhlikādyāś ca kauravāḥ arājyārhaṃ yador vaṃśam avekṣya musalāyudham
Then all the Kauravas—Bāhlika and the rest—spoke in anger. Seeing the Yadu line, unfit for sovereignty, bearing clubs as their weapons, they poured forth their wrath.
Narrator (Sage Parāśara) reporting the Kauravas’ words within the Maitreya–Parāśara dialogue frame
Speaker: Parasara
Teaching: Historical
Quality: revealing
Concept: Arrogant judgments of worthiness for sovereignty, based on lineage or custom, become seeds of adharma and conflict.
Vedantic Theme: Dharma
Application: Notice and restrain contemptuous speech that dehumanizes opponents; practice dharmic dialogue before disputes harden into violence.
Vishishtadvaita: Political power is subordinate to dharma, which ultimately rests on the Lord’s sustaining order even within social hierarchies.
Vishnu Form: Krishna
FAQs
This verse shows how claims to sovereignty are contested through dharma-based judgments—here, the Kauravas brand the Yadu line as “unfit for kingship,” reflecting political rivalry framed as moral evaluation.
Parāśara presents dynastic conflict as part of a larger unraveling of social order, where pride, anger, and factional identity drive confrontations—yet the broader Purāṇic frame implies all such shifts occur under Vishnu’s overarching governance of time and dharma.
Even when Vishnu is not named in the verse, the Vishnu Purana’s implied theology is that sovereignty and dynastic rise or fall are ultimately subordinated to the Supreme Reality—Vishnu—who sustains cosmic order and permits historical outcomes according to dharma and kāla (time).