Shloka 6

Cyavana Explains His Tests; Kuśika Seeks Brāhmaṇya for His Line (च्यवन–कुशिक संवादः)

Devanagari script

कथं पुत्रानतिक्रम्य तेषां नप्तृष्पथाभवत्‌ । एष दोष: सुतान्‌ हित्वा तत्त्वं व्याख्यातुमहसि

Transliteration

yudhiṣṭhira uvāca |

kathaṃ putrān atikramya teṣāṃ naptṝṣv apathābhavat |

eṣa doṣaḥ sutān hitvā tattvaṃ vyākhyātum arhasi |

Translation

Dijo Yudhiṣṭhira: «¿Cómo surgió esta irregularidad en sus nietos, pasando por alto a sus hijos? Parece una falta: dejando de lado a los hijos, apareció en los nietos. Debes explicar la causa verdadera que hay detrás de ello».

Word by Word

• {'katham': 'how? in what manner?', 'putrān': 'sons (accusative plural of putra)', 'atikramya': 'having passed over

• bypassing (gerund of ati-√kram)', 'teṣām': 'of them (genitive plural)', 'naptṝṣu': 'among the grandsons (locative plural of naptr̥)', 'apathā': 'deviation from the proper path

• wrongdoing (lit. ‘not the path’)', 'abhavat': 'arose

• came to be (imperfect of √bhū)', 'eṣa': 'this', 'doṣaḥ': 'fault

• moral blemish', 'sutān': 'sons (accusative plural of suta)', 'hitvā': 'having left aside

• abandoning (gerund of √hā)', 'tattvam': 'the real truth

• the underlying principle', 'vyākhyātum': 'to explain

• to expound', 'arhasi': 'you are fit/ought (2nd person singular of √arh)'}

Speaker

युधिछिर उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Yudhiṣṭhira

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse frames an ethical inquiry into how a perceived moral or social irregularity can manifest in a lineage, emphasizing the need to seek the underlying truth (tattva) rather than accept appearances.

What is happening in the narrative?

Yudhiṣṭhira asks an elder authority to explain why a certain ‘fault’ or deviation is seen in the grandsons rather than in the sons, requesting a principled explanation of the causal chain behind the anomaly.