Shloka 20
Damayantī’s Recognition by the Piplū Mark and Her Return to Vidarbha
गच्छ राजन्नितः सूतो बाहुको5हमिति ब्रुवन् । समीपमृतुपर्णस्य स हि चैवाक्षनैपुण:,“राजन! अब आप यहाँसे अपनेको बाहुक नामक सूत बताते हुए राजा ऋतुपर्णके समीप जाइये। वे द्यूतविद्यामें बड़े निपुण हैं
bṛhadaśva uvāca |
gaccha rājann itaḥ sūto bāhuko’ham iti bruvan |
samīpam ṛtuparṇasya sa hi caivākṣanaipuṇaḥ ||
Bṛhadaśva berkata: “Wahai Raja, berangkatlah dari sini dan pergilah menghadap Raja Ṛtuparṇa, dengan memperkenalkan dirimu sebagai sais bernama Bāhuka. Ia sungguh sangat mahir dalam ilmu dadu (seni permainan dadu).”
ब॒हदश्व उवाच
Educational Q&A
Strategic humility and purposeful learning: the king is advised to adopt a modest identity to approach a master of a specific skill (dicing). The episode underscores that regaining one’s rightful state may require restraint, discretion, and acquiring knowledge—even from morally risky domains—while keeping the larger dharmic aim in view.
Bṛhadaśva instructs the king (Nala, in the Nala-upākhyāna context) to leave and go to King Ṛtuparṇa, introducing himself as a charioteer named Bāhuka. Ṛtuparṇa is renowned for expertise in dice, and this contact becomes a means for Nala to recover competence and move toward resolving the consequences of his earlier loss.