Shloka 30
Babhruvāhana’s Lament and Appeal for Expiation (प्रायश्चित्त-याचना)
शिर:कपाले चास्यैव युज्जत: पितुरद्य मे । प्रायक्षित्तं हि नास्त्यन्यद्धत्वाद्य पितरं मम,“आज पिताकी हत्या करके मेरे लिये बारह वर्षोतक कठोर व्रतका पालन करना अत्यन्त कठिन है। मुझ क्रूर पितृघातीके लिये यहाँ यही प्रायश्नित्त है कि मैं इन्हींके चमड़ेसे अपने शरीरको आच्छादित करके रहूँ और अपने पिताके मस्तक एवं कपालको धारण किये बारह वर्षोतक विचरता रहूँ। पिताका वध करके अब मेरे लिये दूसरा कोई प्रायश्ित्त नहीं है
śiraḥkapāle cāsyāiva yujjataḥ pitur adya me | prāyaścittaṃ hi nāsty anyad dhatvādya pitaraṃ mama ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “For me today, after killing my own father, there is no other expiation. My penance must be this alone: to clothe myself in his very skin and to wander bearing his severed head and skull.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the gravity of violating dharma through patricide and frames expiation (prāyaścitta) as a severe, identity-marking penance. It underscores moral accountability: some acts are so destructive that only harsh, long-term self-discipline and public bearing of the consequence is considered fitting.
A speaker, reported by Vaiśampāyana, declares that after killing his father he sees no alternative expiation. He proposes a grim penance: to cover himself with the father’s skin and to wander while carrying the father’s head and skull, signaling both remorse and the enormity of the deed.