Shloka 6

Kṛṣṇasya Dvārakā-praveśaḥ — Krishna’s Return to Dvārakā and the Raivataka Festival

Devanagari script

सोडहं द्विजेभ्य: प्रणतो विप्राद्‌ दोषमवाप्तवान्‌ | गतिमन्यां न पश्यामि मदयन्तीसहायवान्‌

Transliteration

so 'haṃ dvijebhyaḥ praṇato viprād doṣam avāptavān | gatim anyāṃ na paśyāmi madayantī-sahāyavān ||

Translation

Saudāsa dijo: «Aunque siempre me he inclinado con reverencia ante los dos veces nacidos, por la maldición de un solo brāhmaṇa he incurrido en esta mancha y he caído en esta condición miserable. Aquí permanezco con Madayantī como compañera, y sin embargo no veo otro camino—ningún medio de liberación—de esta calamidad».

Word by Word

• {"so 'ham": 'I indeed

• I myself', 'dvijebhyaḥ': 'to the twice-born (especially brāhmaṇas)

• dative plural of dvija', 'praṇataḥ': 'bowed down, reverent, prostrated', 'viprāt': 'from a brāhmaṇa

• ablative singular of vipra', 'doṣam': 'fault, taint, blemish

• here: a curse-born affliction', 'avāptavān': 'has obtained, has incurred, has come to suffer', 'gatim': 'course, state, destiny

• here: condition/lot', 'anyām': 'another, alternative', 'na paśyāmi': 'I do not see (i.e., I find no way)', 'madayantī-sahāyavān': 'having Madayantī as helper/companion

Speaker

सौदास उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Saudāsa
• Madayantī
• brāhmaṇa (vipra)
• dvija (twice-born)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Even habitual reverence toward the righteous (dvijas) does not automatically cancel the moral and karmic force of a grave transgression; a brāhmaṇa’s curse is portrayed as ethically potent, and the verse highlights accountability and the search for expiation when one has fallen into doṣa (taint).

What is happening in the narrative?

King Saudāsa laments that despite his customary respect for brāhmaṇas, he has been afflicted by a brāhmaṇa’s curse and now endures a degraded condition; with Madayantī beside him, he confesses he sees no clear means of deliverance from this misfortune.