Shloka 16

Devanagari script

क्षीयतां दुष्कृतं कर्म वनवासकृतं तव । भार्या मे भव सुश्रोणि यथा मन्दोदरी तथा,'सुश्रोणि! वनवासका कष्ट प्रदान करनेवाले तुम्हारे पूर्वकृत दुष्कर्मकी समाप्ति हो जानी चाहिये; इसके लिये तुम मन्दोदरीकी भाँति मेरी भार्या हो जाओ'

Transliteration

kṣīyatāṃ duṣkṛtaṃ karma vanavāsakṛtaṃ tava | bhāryā me bhava suśroṇi yathā mandodarī tathā ||

Translation

Mārkaṇḍeya berkata: “Wahai wanita berpinggul elok, semoga perbuatan burukmu di masa lampau—yang berbuah derita sebagai pengasingan di rimba—terhapus dan berakhir. Karena itu, jadilah istriku, sebagaimana Mandodarī menjadi permaisuri tuannya.”

Word by Word

क्षीयताम्let it be exhausted / may it perish

दुष्कृतम्evil deed, sin

कर्मact, deed

वनवासकृतम्caused by forest-dwelling (exile)

तवof you, your

भार्याwife

मेmy, of me

भवbe (become)

सुश्रोणिO fair-hipped one

यथाas, just as

मन्दोदरीMandodarī

तथाso, likewise

Speaker

मार्कण्डेय उवाच

Characters & Entities

Mārkaṇḍeya

Mandodarī

vanavāsa (forest exile)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Cross References

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse frames suffering (here, forest-exile) as the ripening of past wrongdoing and suggests that karmic residue can be ‘exhausted’ through lived consequence. Ethically, it also highlights how religious or moral language can be used to justify personal desire, inviting the reader to discern true dharma from self-serving persuasion.

What is happening in the narrative?

Mārkaṇḍeya addresses a woman with flattering epithets and proposes that she become his wife, claiming this will help end the effects of her prior misdeeds that have led to hardship in the forest. He supports the proposal by invoking Mandodarī as a comparative model (“as Mandodarī [was]”).