Shloka 226
गदायुद्ध-समारम्भः
Commencement of the Mace-Duel Proceedings
सर्वमेतद् यथावृत्तमतीव कुरुसंक्षयम् | राजन! तब सम्पूर्ण धर्मोके ज्ञाता नारदजीने उनसे यह सारा वृत्तान्त यथार्थरूपसे बता दिया कि कुरुकुलका अत्यन्त संहार हो गया है
sarvam etad yathāvṛttam atīva kuru-saṅkṣayam | rājan! tat sampūrṇaṃ dharmokte jñātā nāradaḥ jine tebhyaḥ idaṃ sarvaṃ vṛttāntaṃ yathārtha-rūpeṇa avadat, yathā kuru-kulasya atyanta-saṃhāraḥ jātaḥ iti |
Vaiśaṃpāyana said: “O King, Nārada—fully conversant with the teachings of dharma—reported the entire account exactly as it had occurred, declaring in truth that the Kuru lineage had met with a devastating and near-total destruction.”
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the ethical weight of truthful reporting (yathāvṛttam, yathārtha) and frames the catastrophe—the Kuru decimation—as a dharma-relevant lesson: war and adharma-driven conflict culminate in lineage-wide ruin, which must be acknowledged without distortion.
Vaiśaṃpāyana narrates that the sage Nārada, regarded as knowledgeable in dharma, conveyed to the king the full and accurate account of events, namely that the Kuru family had suffered an extreme destruction.