Shloka 12

Devanagari script

जातो<सि धर्मलोपेन ततस्ते बुद्धिरीदूशी

Transliteration

sañjaya uvāca | jāto 'si dharmalopena tatas te buddhir īdūṣī |

Translation

Sañjaya dit : «Tu es né d’un manquement au dharma ; c’est pourquoi ton discernement s’est corrompu. En te réfugiant auprès d’hommes vils, ton esprit—poussé par l’envie—a fini par haïr même les vertueux Pāṇḍava ; et pour cette raison, dans l’assemblée des Kaurava, j’ai bien des fois dû entendre de ta bouche des paroles amères.»

Word by Word

• {'sañjaya uvāca': 'Sanjaya said', 'jātaḥ asi': 'you were born / you have been born', 'dharmalopena': 'through a loss/violation of dharma

• by a breach of righteous conduct', 'tataḥ': 'therefore

• from that cause', 'te': 'your', 'buddhiḥ': 'intellect

• moral understanding', 'īdūṣī (dūṣitā)': 'tainted

• defiled', 'īrṣyā': 'envy

• jealousy', 'guṇavān': 'virtuous

• possessing good qualities', 'pāṇḍavāḥ': 'the sons of Pāṇḍu

• the Pāṇḍavas', 'dveṣa': 'hatred

• hostility', 'kuru-sabhā / kaurava-sabhā': 'the Kaurava court/assembly', 'kaṭu-vacana': 'harsh/bitter speech

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Sanjaya
• Kunti
• Pandavas
• Kaurava assembly (Kaurava-sabha)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

A breach of dharma is portrayed as having ethical consequences: it clouds discernment (buddhi), fosters envy (īrṣyā), and leads to hostility (dveṣa) even toward the virtuous. The verse links moral lapse with degraded associations and destructive speech in public life.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sanjaya addresses a person whose birth is described as arising from a lapse of dharma (alluding to Kuntī’s premarital conception). He explains that this has led to a corrupted mindset, envy-driven hatred of the Pāṇḍavas, and repeated bitter exchanges in the Kaurava court.