Shloka 23

Duryodhana’s Account of Gandharva Defeat and the Pandavas’ Intervention (दुर्योधनवर्णितो गन्धर्वसंग्रामः)

Devanagari script

क्षेत्र सुकृष्टे हुपिते च बीजे देवे च वर्षत्यूतुकालयुक्तम्‌ । न स्यात्‌ फलं तस्य कुतः प्रसिद्धि- रन्यत्र दैवादिति चिन्तयामि,“मैं सोचता हूँ कि अच्छी तरह जोते हुए खेतमें बीज बोया जाय तथा ऋतुके अनुसार ठीक समयपर वर्षा भी हो, फिर भी उसमें फल न लगे, तो इसमें प्रारब्धके अतिरिक्त अन्य किसी कारणकी सिद्धि कैसे की जा सकती है?

Transliteration

kṣetre sukṛṣṭe hūpite ca bīje deve ca varṣaty ṛtukālayuktam | na syāt phalaṃ tasya kutaḥ prasiddhir anyatra daivād iti cintayāmi ||

Translation

Vaiśampāyana said: “Even when a field is well ploughed, the seed is properly sown, and the god (of rain) sends showers at the right season, if the crop still yields no fruit—how could one establish any cause for that failure other than destiny? This is what I reflect upon.”

Word by Word

• {'kṣetre': 'in the field', 'sukṛṣṭe': 'well-ploughed, well-tilled', 'hūpite': 'properly sown/placed (of seed)', 'bīje': 'seed', 'deve': 'when the god (esp. rain-god) / the divine agency', 'varṣati': 'rains, sends rain', 'ṛtukāla-yuktam': 'in accordance with the proper season and time', 'na syāt': 'would not be / does not occur', 'phalam': 'fruit, result, yield', 'tasya': 'of that (undertaking/field)', 'kutaḥ': 'whence? how?', 'prasiddhiḥ': 'establishment, proof, accepted explanation', 'anyatra': 'elsewhere, other than', 'daivāt': 'from fate/destiny

• from divine ordinance', 'iti': 'thus', 'cintayāmi': 'I think, I reflect'}

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Vaiśampāyana
• kṣetra (field)
• bīja (seed)
• deva (divine agency/rain-god)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse uses an agrarian metaphor to argue that even when all visible causes—effort, proper method, and timely rain—are present, failure can still occur; therefore an unseen factor, called daiva (destiny/previously ripened karma), must be acknowledged alongside human endeavor.

What is happening in the narrative?

Vaiśampāyana, as narrator, presents a reflective maxim: he reasons about why outcomes sometimes do not match careful preparation, concluding that destiny (daiva) is the decisive explanation when ordinary causes appear complete.