Shloka 66
Varṣa-Parvata-Nivāsinām Varnanam
Description of Regions, Mountains, and Their Inhabitants
सकृदग्रहा: कुलत्थाश्न हूणा: पारसिकैः सह । तथैव रमणाश्नीनास्तथैव दशमालिका:,सकृदग्रह, कुलत्थ, हूण, पारसिक, रमण-चीन, दशमालिक, क्षत्रियोंके उपनिवेश, वैश्यों और शाूद्रोंके जनपद, शूद्र, आभीर, दरद, काश्मीर, पशु, खाशीर, अन्तचार, पह्वव, गिरिगह्वर, आत्रेय, भरद्वाज, स्तनपोषिक, प्रोषक, कलिंग, किरात जातियोंके जनपद, तोमर, हनन््यमान और करभंजक इत्यादि
sa-kṛd-grahāḥ kulatthāśnā hūṇāḥ pārasikaiḥ saha | tathaiva ramaṇāśnīnās tathaiva daśamālikāḥ ||
Sañjaya said: “There are also those called the ‘single-seizers’ (people who take only once), the kulattha-eaters, the Hūṇas together with the Pārasikas; likewise the Ramaṇas, and likewise the Daśamālikas.” In this catalogue-like passage, Sañjaya is enumerating various frontier peoples and communities—often marked by distinctive customs or food-habits—within the vast human landscape connected to the war, underscoring how the conflict draws in (or is observed by) many groups beyond the central Kuru realm.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse is not a direct moral injunction; its ethical-narrative force lies in showing the vast scope of the Kurukṣetra conflict and the epic world—many communities with distinct customs are drawn into the orbit of the war, reminding the listener that large-scale adharma or dharma in kingship affects far more than a single dynasty.
Sañjaya is reciting a list of peoples/communities (often frontier groups) as part of a broader descriptive catalogue in Bhīṣma Parva, situating the war within a wide geographic and social horizon.