Shloka 436
Brahmacarya-Upāya: Jñāna, Śauca, and the Mind’s Role in Desire (शान्ति पर्व, अध्याय २०७)
एते पापकृतस्तात चरन्ति पृथिवीमिमाम् | तात! अब उत्तर भारतमें जन्म लेनेवाले म्लेच्छोंका वर्णन करूँगा; यौन, काम्बोज, गान्धार, किरात और बर्बर--ये सब-के-सब पापाचारी होकर इस सारी पृथ्वीपर विचरते रहते हैं
ete pāpakṛtas tāta caranti pṛthivīm imām | tāta, adhunā uttara-bhārate janma-labhya-mlecchānāṃ varṇanaṃ kariṣyāmi—yavana-kāmboja-gāndhāra-kirāta-barbarāḥ—ete sarve pāpācārāḥ kṛtsnāṃ pṛthivīm imāṃ vicarante |
Bhīṣma dijo: «Hijo mío, estos pecadores vagan por esta tierra. Ahora, querido, describiré a los mlecchas nacidos en las regiones septentrionales de Bhārata: los Yavanas, Kāmbojas, Gāndhāras, Kirātas y Barbaras. Todos ellos, entregados a una conducta pecaminosa, deambulan por todo este mundo.»
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The passage frames a moral-ethical judgment: conduct (ācāra) is presented as the basis for praise or blame, and groups characterized as ‘outsiders’ are depicted as roaming and ‘sinful’ in behavior. In the Shānti Parva’s broader discourse on dharma and governance, such statements function as cautionary ethnographic-moral classifications rather than a universal ethical rule.
Bhīṣma, instructing Yudhiṣṭhira in the Shānti Parva, transitions into a description of various peoples identified as mlecchas in the epic’s geographic imagination, listing Yavanas, Kāmbojas, Gāndhāras, Kirātas, and Barbaras, and characterizing them as roaming the earth with sinful conduct.