Shloka 11
Chatra–Upānah Dāna: Origin Narrative
Jamadagni–Reṇukā–Sūrya Saṃvāda
पुरा वेदान् ब्राह्मुणा ग्राममध्ये घुष्टस्वरा वृषलान् श्रावयन्ति | पुरा राजा व्यवहारेण धर्मान् पश्यत्यहं परलोक॑ व्रजामि
bhīṣma uvāca | purā vedān brāhmaṇā grāmamadhye ghuṣṭasvarā vṛṣalān śrāvayanti | purā rājā vyavahāreṇa dharmān paśyaty ahaṃ paralokaṃ vrajāmi |
Bhishma dit : «Puissé-je gagner l’autre monde avant que n’advienne ce temps—où les brahmanes, élevant la voix au milieu du village, réciteront les Veda pour se faire entendre des śūdra, et où le roi commencera à juger le dharma à travers le seul prisme des affaires du monde et des procès. Avant que ces déformations de l’ordre sacré et du devoir royal ne s’installent, qu’il me soit donné de partir pour l’au-delà.»
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhishma warns against two signs of dharmic deterioration: (1) sacred learning being handled in a way he views as improper for its traditional transmission, and (2) a king reducing dharma to mere ‘vyavahāra’—pragmatic business or courtroom procedure—rather than upholding deeper moral and spiritual justice. The verse frames these as markers of a world he would rather leave than witness.
Bhishma, speaking in the Anushasana Parva while instructing on dharma, expresses a grim forecast: if Brahmins publicly proclaim Vedic recitation in the village to be heard by those deemed unqualified (here termed vṛṣalas/śūdras), and if the king starts ‘seeing’ dharma only through transactional or legalistic considerations, then Bhishma says he would prefer to depart to the afterlife before such a time.