Shloka 107
Śoka-śamana: Kṛṣṇa’s Consolation and Nārada’s Exempla to Sṛñjaya
Chapter 29
शतं कन्या राजपुत्रमेकैकं॑ पृथगन्वयु: । कन्यां कनन््यां शतं नागा नागं॑ नागं शतं रथा:
śataṁ kanyā rājaputram ekaikaṁ pṛthag anvayuḥ | kanyāṁ kanyāṁ śataṁ nāgā nāgaṁ nāgaṁ śataṁ rathāḥ |
Vāyu dit : « Cent jeunes filles furent données, chacune à un prince différent. Avec chaque jeune fille venaient cent éléphants ; et avec chaque éléphant, cent chars. » Le vers souligne l’ampleur des richesses royales et l’usage social de mesurer le rang par des présents nuptiaux somptueux, laissant entendre comment prospérité et puissance peuvent se multiplier en un immense étalage matériel.
वायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how royal society expresses prestige through immense material endowments—marriage alliances accompanied by escalating gifts (brides, elephants, chariots). In the ethical frame of Śānti Parva, such descriptions can serve as a contrast to inner restraint and the limits of worldly display.
Vāyu narrates a scene of extraordinary royal arrangements: each prince receives a separate group of a hundred brides, each bride is accompanied by a hundred elephants, and each elephant is followed by a hundred chariots—depicting an immense procession of wealth and military resources.