Shloka 353

कुमाराभिषेकप्रश्नः — Inquiry into Kumāra (Skanda) Investiture at Sarasvatī

Devanagari script

वधिष्याम्यसुरश्रेष्ठ सखे सत्येन ते शपे । पहलेकी बात है, नमुचि इन्द्रके भयसे डरकर सूर्यकी किरणोंमें समा गया था। तब इन्द्रने उसके साथ मित्रता कर ली और यह प्रतिज्ञा की 'असुरश्रेष्ठ! मैं न तो तुम्हें गीले हथियारसे मारूँगा न सूखेसे। न दिनमें मारँगा न रातमें। सखे! मैं सत्यकी सौगन्ध खाकर यह बात तुमसे कहता हूँ"

Transliteration

vadhīṣyāmy asuraśreṣṭha sakhe satyena te śape | pūrvasya vṛttānto 'yaṃ—namucir indrasya bhayād ādityaraśmiṣu samāviśat | tata indreṇa saha tasya sakhyaṃ kṛtaṃ, iyaṃ ca pratijñā kṛtā—“asuraśreṣṭha! na tvāṃ kliṣṭena āyudhena haniṣyāmi, na śuṣkeṇa; na divā, na rātrau; sakhe! satyena śapathena tvām etad bravīmi” |

Translation

‘I shall slay you, O best of Asuras—friend, I swear to you by truth.’ This is an earlier tale: Namuci, terrified of Indra, merged into the sun’s rays. Then Indra made friendship with him and took this vow: “O foremost Asura, I will not kill you with a wet weapon nor with a dry one; not by day nor by night. Friend, I tell you this under an oath of truth.” The episode foregrounds the ethical tension between sworn promises and the impulse to overcome an enemy through clever loopholes.

Word by Word

• {'vadhīṣyāmi': 'I will kill/slay', 'asuraśreṣṭha': 'best/foremost among Asuras', 'sakhe': 'friend (vocative)', 'satyena': 'by truth

• invoking truth as an oath', 'śape/śapathena': 'I swear

• by an oath', 'namuciḥ': 'Namuci (an Asura, Indra’s adversary in an old legend)', 'indraḥ': 'Indra (king of the gods)', 'bhayāt': 'from fear', 'ādityaraśmiṣu': 'in the sun’s rays', 'samāviśat/samāgataḥ': 'entered/merged into', 'sakhyam': 'friendship, alliance', 'pratijñā': 'vow, solemn promise', 'āyudhena': 'with a weapon', 'kliṣṭa (gīla)': 'wet, moistened', 'śuṣka': 'dry', 'divā': 'by day', 'rātrau': 'by night', 'na ... na ...': 'neither ... nor ...'}

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Vaiśampāyana
• Namuci
• Indra
• Āditya (Sun)
• sun’s rays (ādityaraśmi)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The passage highlights the moral complexity of vows: invoking truth to bind oneself ethically, yet creating conditions that can be exploited. It raises the question of whether clever circumvention preserves or violates the spirit of dharma.

What is happening in the narrative?

Vaiśampāyana recounts an old episode: Namuci, fearing Indra, hides by merging into the sun’s rays. Indra befriends him and swears a protective vow—he will not kill Namuci with wet or dry weapons, nor by day or night—setting up the later problem of how Indra can still defeat him.