Shloka 26
Gaṅgā-Tīrtha Darśana and the Prelude to the Yavakrīta–Indra Exemplum (लोमश-युधिष्ठिर संवादः)
अद्टावक्र उवाच विप्रा: समुद्राम्भसि मज्जिता ये वाचा जिता मेधया वा विदाना: । तां मेधया वाचमथोज्जहार यथा वाचमवचिन्वन्ति सन्त:,अष्टावक्र बोले--राजन्! बन्दीने अपनी जिस वाणी (प्रवचनपटुता अथवा मेधा--बुद्धिबल)-से विद्वान् ब्राह्मणोंको भी परास्त किया और समुद्रके जलमें डुबोया है, उसकी उस वाकृशक्तिको मैंने अपनी बुद्धिसे किस प्रकार उखाड़ फेंका है, यह सब इस सभामें बैठे हुए विद्वान् पुरुष मेरी बातें सुनकर ही जान गये होंगे
aṣṭāvakra uvāca | viprāḥ samudrāmbhasi majjitā ye vācā jitā medhayā vā vidānāḥ | tāṃ medhayā vācam athojjahāra yathā vācam avacinvanti santaḥ ||
Aṣṭāvakra said: “O King, those learned brāhmaṇas who had been defeated by his speech or by his intellect and then plunged into the waters of the sea—how I, by my own intelligence, uprooted that very power of speech: the wise men seated in this assembly will have understood it simply by hearing my words.”
अद्टावक्र उवाच
Educational Q&A
True superiority in discourse is not mere verbal brilliance but discerning intelligence aligned with the judgment of the wise. Aṣṭāvakra frames victory as the removal of harmful, pride-driven rhetorical power and implies that learned audiences can recognize genuine insight without spectacle.
Aṣṭāvakra addresses the king and refers to the opponent who had defeated scholars in debate and punished them by casting them into the sea. He declares that he has now overturned that opponent’s speech-power through his own intellect, and that the learned men present have already grasped this from his words.