Mahabharata — Virata Parva, Shloka 11
Virāṭa-parva Adhyāya 22 — Draupadī’s Abduction Attempt and Bhīma’s Suppression of the Kīcakas
दासीशतं च ते दद्यां दासानामपि चापरम् | रथं चाश्व॒तरीयुक्तमस्तु नौ भीरु संगम:
vaiśampāyana uvāca |
dāsīśataṃ ca te dadyāṃ dāsānām api cāparam | rathaṃ cāśvatarīyuktam astu nau bhīru saṅgamaḥ ||
वैशम्पायन बोले—तुम्हारी सेवा के लिए मैं सौ दासियाँ और उतने ही दास भी दूँगा। तुम्हारी सवारी के लिए खच्चरियों से जुता रथ सदा प्रस्तुत रहेगा। भीरु! अब हम दोनों का परस्पर समागम हो।
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how material inducements—servants, conveyances, and comfort—can be used to pressure or entice someone toward an unwanted or ethically fraught relationship. It implicitly foregrounds the moral tension between desire backed by power and the need for restraint and consent.
In the Virāṭa-parvan context, a speaker (reported by Vaiśampāyana) offers lavish gifts—hundreds of servants and a mule-yoked chariot—and urges a ‘meeting/union’ with the addressed woman, calling her ‘bhīru’ (“timid one”). The line functions as a persuasive proposal framed through wealth and status.
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