Anushasana Parva Adhyaya 131 Shloka 28 - Mahabharata | French | Vedapath

Vyasa

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Shloka 28

Devanagari script

स्त्रीघ्नैगोघ्नै: कृतध्नैश्ष ब्रह्मघ्नैर्गुरुतल्पगै: । तुल्यदोषो भवत्येभिययस्यातिथिरनर्चित:

Transliteration

strīghnair goghnaḥ kṛtadhnaiś ca brahmaghnair gurutalpagaiḥ | tulyadoṣo bhavaty eṣa yasya atithir anarcitaḥ ||

Translation

Dharma dit : «L’homme dans la maison duquel un hôte n’est pas honoré contracte un péché égal à celui du meurtrier d’une femme, du tueur de vache, de l’ingrat, du meurtrier d’un brāhmaṇa, et de celui qui souille le lit du maître. L’enseignement souligne que négliger l’hospitalité n’est pas une faute légère, mais une grave transgression du dharma, car l’hôte porte en lui une exigence sacrée de soin et de révérence.»

Word by Word

स्त्रीघ्नैःby/with woman-killers

गोघ्नैःby/with cow-killers

कृतघ्नैःby/with the ungrateful

चand

ब्रह्मघ्नैःby/with brahmin-killers

गुरुतल्पगैःby/with those who violate the guru's bed (adulterers with the teacher's wife)

तुल्यदोषःhaving equal fault (equally sinful)

भवतिbecomes/is

एभिःwith these

यस्यof whom/whose

अतिथिःguest

अनर्चितःnot honored/worshipped

Speaker

धर्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

Dharma

atithi (guest)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Failing to honor a guest (atithi) is treated as a serious violation of dharma, carrying guilt comparable to major sins; hospitality is presented as a sacred moral obligation, not mere social etiquette.

What is happening in the narrative?

Dharma is instructing about righteous conduct by listing extreme transgressions and declaring that neglecting a guest’s reception places a person in the same category of grave wrongdoing, thereby emphasizing the sanctity of atithi-satkāra.