Mahabharata 9.39.113 — Shalya Parva, Adhyaya 39, Shloka 113

Ārṣṭiṣeṇa’s Siddhi and the Tīrtha-Boons; Sindhudvīpa–Devāpi Brāhmaṇya; Viśvāmitra’s Tapas Begins

Devanagari script

वने विचरतो राजन्नस्थि भिनत्त्वास्फुरत्‌ तदा । वैशम्पायनजीने कहा--नृपश्रेष्ठ! पूर्वकालकी बात है

Transliteration

vane vicarato rājann asthi bhinittvā asphurat tadā |

Translation

Vaiśampāyana said: “O king, as he was roaming in the forest, it then struck—splitting the bone. (In the remembered tale: when the noble Rāma, dwelling in Daṇḍakāraṇya and intent on destroying the rākṣasas, cut off the head of a wicked rākṣasa at Jana-sthāna with a sharp-edged weapon, that severed head sprang upward in the great forest and, by the turn of fate, hit the thigh of the sage Mahodara who was wandering there, piercing through the bone and driving in.)”

Word by Word

• वने: in the forest
• वने: Adhikarana
• Type: Noun
• Root: वन
• Form: Neuter, Locative, Singular

• विचरतः: of (one) roaming
• विचरतः: Adhikarana
• Type: Verb
• Root: वि-चर्
• Form: Present active participle (शतृ), Masculine/Neuter, Genitive, Singular

• राजन्: O king
• Type: Noun
• Root: राजन्
• Form: Masculine, Vocative, Singular

• अस्थि: a bone
• अस्थि: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: अस्थि
• Form: Neuter, Nominative, Singular

• भिनत्त्वा: having pierced
• Type: Verb
• Root: भिद्
• Form: Absolutive (क्त्वा), Parasmaipada (active), having pierced/split

• अस्फुरत्: quivered/throbbed
• Type: Verb
• Root: स्फुर्
• Form: Imperfect (लङ्), 3rd, Singular, Parasmaipada

• तदा: then
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: तदा

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Vaiśampāyana
• Rāma (Śrī Rāmacandra)
• Mahodara (muni)
• rākṣasa (unnamed)
• Daṇḍakāraṇya
• Janasthāna
• forest (vana)
• bone (asthi)
• severed head (śiraḥ, implied by the narrative gloss)
• sharp-edged weapon (implied)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Even actions undertaken with a righteous aim can generate unforeseen collateral harm; the verse underscores daivayoga (the unpredictable turn of fate) and invites ethical vigilance about consequences beyond intention.

What is happening in the narrative?

Vaiśampāyana describes an impact in the forest that pierces bone, and the accompanying traditional explanation recalls a prior episode where a severed rākṣasa head, flung upward, accidentally strikes the wandering sage Mahodara’s thigh and drives in.