Shloka 10

Plakṣāvataraṇa–Yamunā Tīrtha and Prajāpati’s Vedī

Kurukṣetra Threshold

Devanagari script

एकरात्रमुषित्वेह द्वितीयं यदि वत्स्यसि | एतद्‌ वै ते दिवावृत्तं रात्रौ वृत्तमतोडन्यथा,(अच्छा, आयी है तो एक रात रह ले,) यदि एक रात यहाँ रह लेनेके पश्चात्‌ दूसरी रातमें भी रहेगी तो दिनमें तो तेरा यह हाल है (आज दिनमें तो तुमको यह कष्ट दिया गया है) और रातमें तेरे साथ अन्यथा बर्ताव होगा (विशेष कष्ट दिया जायगा)'

Transliteration

ekarātram uṣitveha dvitīyaṁ yadi vatsyasi | etad vai te divāvṛttaṁ rātrau vṛttam ato 'nyathā ||

Translation

“Jika engkau tinggal di sini hanya satu malam, itu lain perkara; tetapi bila engkau bertahan hingga malam kedua, ketahuilah: apa yang menimpamu pada siang hari hanyalah sebatas ini—pada malam hari engkau akan diperlakukan dengan cara yang berbeda.”

Word by Word

• {'ekarātram': 'for one night', 'uṣitvā (uṣitveha)': 'having stayed

• after lodging here (iha)', 'iha': 'here', 'dvitīyam': 'a second (night/day), second time', 'yadi': 'if', 'vatsyasi': 'you will stay, you will dwell', 'etat': 'this', 'vai': 'indeed, certainly (emphatic particle)', 'te': 'to you

• your', 'divā': 'by day, in daytime', 'vṛttam (divāvṛttam)': 'what occurred

• what was done/experienced', 'rātrau': 'at night', 'ataḥ': 'therefore, hence', 'anyathā': 'otherwise

Speaker

लोगश उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Lomaśa (speaker)
• unnamed addressee (a woman implied by the Hindi gloss)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse underscores prudence and self-protection in an unsafe environment: when a place or person shows harmful intent even in daylight, staying longer invites greater danger. Ethically, it highlights the adharma of threatening a guest or vulnerable person and the need to avoid enabling escalating wrongdoing.

What is happening in the narrative?

Lomaśa issues a caution: staying one night may be tolerated, but remaining for a second night will lead to ‘other’ treatment at night—an implied escalation from daytime harassment or suffering to more severe harm after dark.