Shloka 32
ततः परं समा नाम दृश्यते लोकसंस्थिति: । चतुरस््र॑ महाराज त्रयस्त्रिंशत् तु मण्डलम्,उसके बाद समानामवाली लोगोंकी बस्ती देखी जाती है। महाराज! वह चौकोर बसी हुई है। उसमें तैंतीस मण्डल हैं
tataḥ paraṃ samā nāma dṛśyate lokasaṃsthitiḥ | caturasraṃ mahārāja trayastriṃśat tu maṇḍalam |
Sañjaya said: “Thereafter, O King, there appears a settlement of people known as Samā. It is laid out in a square plan, and within it are thirty-three districts (maṇḍalas).” In the larger narrative, this description functions as a measured, almost cartographic reporting of the world’s ordered habitations—suggesting that even amid the impending chaos of war, human society is conceived in structured, countable forms.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores an ideal of order: human habitation and governance are envisioned as structured (square-planned) and administratively divided (into maṇḍalas). This sense of measured arrangement contrasts with the disorder of war, implying that righteous rule values clarity, organization, and intelligible social structure.
Sañjaya continues a descriptive account, reporting to the king what is ‘seen’—a settlement called Samā, square in layout, containing thirty-three territorial divisions (maṇḍalas).