Shloka 1

Ādi-parva Adhyāya 116 — Pāṇḍu’s Transgression of the Curse and Mādrī’s Final Charge

Devanagari script

अपर पञ्चदशाधिकशततमो< ध्याय: दुःशलाके जन्मकी कथा जनमेजय उवाच धृतराष्ट्रस्य पुत्राणामादित: कथितं त्वया । ऋषे: प्रसादात्‌ तु शतं न च कन्या प्रकीर्तिता,जनमेजयने पूछा--ब्रह्मन! महर्षि व्यासके प्रसादसे धृतराष्ट्रके सौ पुत्र हुए, यह बात आपने मुझे पहले ही बता दी थी। परंतु उस समय यह नहीं कहा था कि उन्हें एक कन्या भी हुई

Transliteration

janamejaya uvāca | dhṛtarāṣṭrasya putrāṇām āditaḥ kathitaṃ tvayā | ṛṣeḥ prasādāt tu śataṃ na ca kanyā prakīrtitā ||

Translation

Janamejaya dit : «Tu m’as déjà raconté, dès le commencement, l’histoire des fils de Dhṛtarāṣṭra—comment, par la grâce du sage, ils furent au nombre de cent. Pourtant, tu n’as pas mentionné qu’une fille était aussi née.»

Word by Word

• {'janamejaya uvāca': 'Janamejaya said', 'dhṛtarāṣṭrasya': 'of Dhṛtarāṣṭra', 'putrāṇām': 'of the sons/children (lit. sons)', 'āditaḥ': 'from the beginning

• at first', 'kathitam': 'told

• narrated', 'tvayā': 'by you', 'ṛṣeḥ': 'of the sage (ṛṣi)', 'prasādāt': 'by grace

• through favor', 'tu': 'but

• however', 'śatam': 'a hundred', 'na': 'not', 'ca': 'and

• also', 'kanyā': 'a daughter

• maiden', 'prakīrtitā': 'mentioned

Speaker

जनमेजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Janamejaya
• Dhṛtarāṣṭra
• Ṛṣi (sage; implicitly Vyāsa in context)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights the ethical demand for completeness and precision in narration: a listener may accept a major fact (the hundred sons) yet still insist that the account include what was omitted (the daughter), underscoring careful truth-telling and thorough testimony.

What is happening in the narrative?

Janamejaya interrupts the narration to clarify a detail: although he has heard that Dhṛtarāṣṭra obtained a hundred sons by a sage’s grace, he notes that the narrator did not mention a daughter, prompting the forthcoming account of Duḥśalā’s birth.