Shloka 15
Kuntī’s Benediction to Draupadī and the Alliance Gifts (कुन्त्याः स्नुषाशीर्-वचनम् तथा दान-प्रतिग्रहः)
कच्चिन्न शूद्रेण न हीनजेन वैश्येन वा करदेनोपपन्ना । कच्चित् पदं मूर्थ्नि न पड़कदिग्धं कच्चिन्न माला पतिता श्मशाने,“कहीं किसी शूद्रने अथवा नीच जातिके पुरुषद्वारा ऊँची जातिकी स्त्रीसे उत्पन्न मनुष्यने या कर देनेवाले वैश्यने तो मेरी पुत्रीको प्राप्त नहीं कर लिया? और इस प्रकार उन्होंने मेरे सिरपर अपना कीचड़से सना पाँव तो नहीं रख दिया? मालाके समान सुकुमारी और हृदयपर धारण करनेयोग्य मेरी लाडली पुत्री श्मशानके समान अपवित्र किसी पुरुषके हाथमें तो नहीं पड़ गयी?
Vaiśampāyana uvāca: kaccin na śūdreṇa na hīnajena vaiśyena vā karadenopapannā | kaccit padaṃ mūrdhni na paṅkadigdhaṃ kaccin na mālā patitā śmaśāne ||
Vaiśampāyana said: “Has my daughter not been obtained by a Śūdra, or by a man of low birth, or by a Vaiśya who lives by paying tribute? Have they not, as it were, set their mud-smeared foot upon my head? Has my beloved daughter—tender like a garland, fit to be cherished close to the heart—not fallen into the hands of some man as impure as a cremation ground?”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how concerns about dharma, lineage, and social standing shape ethical anxieties in the epic world: the speaker frames an unsuitable match as a profound dishonor, using strong metaphors (mud on the head, a garland fallen into a cremation ground) to express perceived loss of purity and status.
In Vaiśampāyana’s narration, a father (implicitly a high-status figure) voices fearful questions about his daughter’s fate—whether she has been taken or married by someone considered socially inferior or impure—expressing distress through repeated ‘kaccit’ questions and vivid imagery of humiliation.