Shloka 12
Kurukṣetra-anudarśanam — Rāma-hradāḥ and the Question of Kṣatra Continuity (शान्ति पर्व, अध्याय ४८)
महात्मना भगवता रामेण यदुपुड्भव । कथमुत्सादितं क्षत्र॑ं कथं वृद्धिमुपागतम्,यदुपुड़व! महात्मा भगवान् परशुरामने क्षत्रियोंका संहार किसलिये किया और उसके बाद इस जातिकी वृद्धि कैसे हुई?
yudhiṣṭhira uvāca |
mahātmanā bhagavatā rāmeṇa yadu-puṅgava |
katham utsāditaṃ kṣatraṃ kathaṃ vṛddhim upāgatam ||
युधिष्ठिर बोले— हे यदुकुल-श्रेष्ठ! महात्मा भगवान् राम (परशुराम) ने क्षत्रिय-बल का विनाश कैसे किया? और उस विनाश के बाद वही क्षत्रिय वंश फिर कैसे बढ़ा और समृद्ध हुआ?
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames an ethical-historical problem: when royal power becomes corrupt or oppressive, even a divinely empowered agent may punish it severely; yet social order cannot remain void, so legitimate kṣatriya authority must be restored. It invites reflection on proportionality of punishment, the limits of violence, and the necessity of re-establishing dharma after upheaval.
Yudhiṣṭhira addresses a leading Yādava and asks for an account of Paraśurāma’s destruction of the kṣatriyas—how it occurred and why—and then asks how the kṣatriya order, after being devastated, later increased again.