Shloka 23
Nahūṣa’s Fall Explained: Agastya’s Account to Indra (Śalya-narrated)
गन्धर्वा देवकन्याश्ष सर्वे चाप्सरसां गणा: । सरांसि सरित: शैला: सागराक्ष विशाम्पते
gandharvā devakanyāś ca sarve cāpsarasāṃ gaṇāḥ | sarāṃsi saritaḥ śailāḥ sāgarākṣa viśāṃ pate ||
Śalya dijo: «Oh señor de los hombres, oh de ojos como el océano: los Gandharvas, las doncellas celestiales y todas las huestes de Apsarasas—junto con los lagos, los ríos, las montañas y los mares—son testigos de este asunto.»
शल्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores moral accountability: one’s words and decisions—especially in royal counsel—are not merely private or political but stand before a wider order, as if witnessed by divine beings and the very landscape. This reinforces the ethical weight of truthfulness and righteous resolve.
Śalya addresses a king (vocatively, “lord of men,” “ocean-eyed”) and invokes celestial beings (Gandharvas, Apsarases, divine maidens) and natural features (lakes, rivers, mountains, seas) as encompassing witnesses, intensifying the seriousness of the counsel or declaration being made in the Udyoga Parva setting.