Shloka 12
Takṣaka’s agency, Parīkṣit’s rites, and Janamejaya’s enthronement (वैयासिक परम्परा-प्रसङ्गः)
मृगान् विध्यन् वराहांश्व तरक्षून् महिषांस्तथा । अन््यांश्व विविधान् वन्यांश्वचार पृथिवीपति:,महाराज परीक्षित् वराह, तरक्षु (व्याप्रविशेष), महिष तथा दूसरे-दूसरे नाना प्रकारके वनके हिंसक पशुओंका शिकार खेलते हुए वनमें घूमते रहते थे
mṛgān vidhyan varāhāṁś ca tarakṣūn mahiṣāṁs tathā | anyāṁś ca vividhān vanyāṁś cacāra pṛthivīpatiḥ ||
Śaunaka said: King Parīkṣit, the lord of the earth, roamed through the forest engaged in the hunt—shooting deer, boars, tarakṣus, buffaloes, and other various wild creatures. The verse situates the king in the kṣatriya milieu of royal sport and power, while also foreshadowing the ethical tension that hunting and forest-encounters can precipitate in the epic’s moral universe.
शौनक उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights royal power expressed through hunting, while implicitly setting up the Mahābhārata’s recurring ethical question: how a ruler’s actions—even customary ones like the hunt—can lead to moral consequences when undertaken in heedlessness or excess.
Śaunaka describes King Parīkṣit moving about in the forest on a hunt, shooting various wild animals such as deer, boars, tarakṣus, and buffaloes.