Shloka 6

Yuddha-yajña-vyākhyāna (The Battle as Sacrifice): Ambarīṣa–Indra Saṃvāda

Devanagari script

अमग्बरीष उवाच सागरान्तां महीं कृत्स्नामनुशास्य यथाविधि । चातुर्वण्यें यथाशास्त्र प्रवृत्ती धर्मकाम्यया,अम्बरीषने पूछा--देवराज! मैं समुद्रपर्यन्त सारी पृथ्वीका विधिपूर्वक शासन और संरक्षण करता था। शास्त्रकी आज्ञाके अनुसार धर्मकी कामनासे चारों वर्णोके पालनमें तत्पर रहता था

Transliteration

ambarīṣa uvāca | sāgarāntāṃ mahīṃ kṛtsnām anuśāsya yathāvidhi | cāturvarṇye yathāśāstraṃ pravṛttiṃ dharmakāmyayā ||

Translation

Ambarīṣa dit : «Ô roi des dieux ! Après avoir gouverné et protégé, comme il convient, toute la terre bornée par l’océan, je suis demeuré appliqué—selon les injonctions des śāstras—aux devoirs des quatre ordres, animé du désir de maintenir le dharma.»

Word by Word

• {'ambarīṣa uvāca': 'Ambarīṣa said', 'sāgarāntām': 'bounded by the ocean

• extending to the sea', 'mahīm': 'the earth

• the realm/kingdom', 'kṛtsnām': 'entire

• whole', 'anuśāsya': 'having ruled

• having disciplined/regulated', 'yathāvidhi': 'according to proper rule

• as prescribed', 'cāturvarṇye': 'in/with regard to the four varṇas (social orders)', 'yathāśāstram': 'according to the śāstras

• scripturally', 'pravṛttim': 'engagement

• undertaking of duties', 'dharma-kāmyayā': 'with the desire for dharma

Speaker

अमग्बरीष उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Ambarīṣa
• Earth (mahī)
• Ocean/Sea (sāgara)
• Cāturvarṇya (the four varṇas)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

A ruler’s legitimacy rests on governing the whole realm according to prescribed norms (vidhi/śāstra) and actively sustaining dharma through proper maintenance of social duties (cāturvarṇya), not merely through power or conquest.

What is happening in the narrative?

Ambarīṣa addresses a superior (implied by the vocative “Devarāja” in the accompanying Hindi gloss) and recounts his own conduct as a king: he ruled the earth up to the ocean’s bounds in a lawful manner and remained devoted to śāstra-guided performance of duties connected with the four varṇas, driven by commitment to dharma.