Shloka 50
तस्मात् त्वं नर्तनः पार्थ स्त्रीमध्ये मानवर्जित: । अपुमानिति विख्यात: षण्ढवद् विचरिष्यसि,उर्वशी बोली--अर्जुन! तुम्हारे पिता इन्द्रके कहनेसे मैं स्वयं तुम्हारे घरपर आयी और कामबाणसे घायल हो रही हूँ, फिर भी तुम मेरा आदर नहीं करते। अतः तुम्हें स्त्रियोंके बीचमें सम्मानरहित होकर नर्तक बनकर रहना पड़ेगा। तुम नपुंसक कहलाओगे और तुम्हारा सारा आचार-व्यवहार हिजड़ोंके ही समान होगा
tasmāt tvaṃ nartanaḥ pārtha strī-madhye māna-varjitaḥ | apumāna iti vikhyātaḥ ṣaṇḍha-vad vicariṣyasi ||
Therefore, O Pārtha, you shall become a dancer, moving among women without honor. You will be known as ‘impotent,’ and your conduct and way of life will be like that of a eunuch. In the narrative context, this is spoken as a punitive curse arising from wounded desire and rejected advances, highlighting how personal passion and affront can be converted into social humiliation as a form of retribution.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores how honor and social identity can be targeted through curses or punishments when desire turns into resentment. Ethically, it warns that uncontrolled passion and wounded pride can lead to harsh, disproportionate retaliation, and it also foreshadows how apparent disgrace may later become instrumental in fulfilling a larger destiny.
A divine woman, angered by Arjuna’s refusal of her advances, pronounces a curse: Arjuna will live among women as a dancer, publicly reputed to be impotent, behaving like a eunuch. This sets up the later episode where Arjuna lives incognito in Virāṭa’s court as a dance-teacher.