Shloka 3

Pānīya-dāna and Anna-dāna: The Primacy of Life-Sustaining Gifts (पानीयदान-प्रशंसा / अन्नदान-प्रशंसा)

Devanagari script

दत्तं किं फलवद्‌ राजन्निह लोके परत्र च | भवतः: श्रोतुमिच्छामि तन्मे विस्तरतो वद

Transliteration

yudhiṣṭhira uvāca | dattaṃ kiṃ phalavad rājann iha loke paratra ca | bhavataḥ śrotum icchāmi tan me vistarato vada rājann ||

Translation

राजन्! इहलोक और परलोक में कौन-सा दान विशेष फल देने वाला होता है? यह मैं आपके मुख से सुनना चाहता हूँ। आप इसे विस्तार से बताइए।

Word by Word

• [{'term': 'दत्तम् (dattam)', 'definition': 'a gift given

• that which is donated'}, {'term': 'किम् (kim)', 'definition': 'what? which?'}, {'term': 'फलवत् (phalavat)', 'definition': 'fruitful

• yielding results/reward'}, {'term': 'राजन् (rājan)', 'definition': 'O king (vocative address)'}, {'term': 'इह लोके (iha loke)', 'definition': 'in this world'}, {'term': 'परत्र (paratra)', 'definition': 'in the hereafter

• in the next world'}, {'term': 'भवतः (bhavataḥ)', 'definition': 'from you

• of you (honorific genitive/ablative sense)'}, {'term': 'श्रोतुम् (śrotum)', 'definition': 'to hear'}, {'term': 'इच्छामि (icchāmi)', 'definition': 'I desire

• I wish'}, {'term': 'तत् (tat)', 'definition': 'that (teaching/matter)'}, {'term': 'मे (me)', 'definition': 'to me

• for me'}, {'term': 'विस्तरतः (vistarataḥ)', 'definition': 'in detail

• expansively'}, {'term': 'वद (vada)', 'definition': 'tell

Speaker

युधिछ्िर उवाच

Characters & Entities

• युधिष्ठिर (Yudhiṣṭhira)
• राजन् (the addressed King—interlocutor)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse frames a dharma-inquiry: Yudhiṣṭhira asks which forms of giving (dāna) produce meaningful results both socially in this life and spiritually in the hereafter, inviting a detailed ethical hierarchy of gifts.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Anuśāsana Parva’s instructional setting, Yudhiṣṭhira addresses a kingly authority figure and requests an expanded explanation about the most rewarding kinds of charity, setting up a discourse on dāna and its consequences.