Shloka 17
पाण्डुरुवाच प्रमत्तमप्रमत्तं वा विवृत्तं घ्नन्ति चौजसा । उपायैर्विविधैस्तीक्ष्णपै: कस्मान्मृग विगर्हसे,पाण्डु बोले--मृग! राजालोग नाना प्रकारके तीक्ष्ण उपायोंद्वारा बलपूर्वक खुले-आम मृगका वध करते हैं; चाहे वह सावधान हो या असावधान। फिर तुम मेरी निन्दा क्यों करते हो?
Pāṇḍur uvāca: pramattam apramattaṁ vā vivṛttaṁ ghnanti caujāsā | upāyair vividhaiḥ tīkṣṇapaiḥ kasmān mṛga vigarhase ||
Pāṇḍu said: “Whether a deer is heedless or alert, hunters strike it down openly and by force, using many sharp and varied stratagems. So why, O deer, do you condemn me?”
मगृग उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames an ethical dispute: Pāṇḍu appeals to social custom and royal practice to justify hunting, implying that force and stratagem are accepted means against animals. The larger episode challenges this reasoning by showing that customary power does not automatically equal dharma, and that harm done without discernment can rebound as grave consequence.
In the forest, after Pāṇḍu has shot a deer, the deer speaks (in the broader story, it is a sage in deer-form). Pāṇḍu responds defensively, arguing that hunters kill deer whether they are alert or not, openly and by various methods; therefore the deer should not blame him.