Shloka 53
नलस्य बाहुकत्वेन ऋतुपर्णनगरप्रवेशः
Nala as Bāhuka enters Ṛtuparṇa’s city
समुल्लिखद्धिरेतैर्हि त्वया शूज्भशतैर्न॒प: । कच्चिद् दृष्टोडचलश्रेष्ठ वने5स्मिन् दारुणे नलः,'पर्वतश्रेष्ठ] क्या आपने इन सैकड़ों गगनचुम्बी शिखरोंद्वारा इस भयानक वनमें कहीं राजा नलको देखा है?
samullikhaddhir etair hi tvayā śṛṅgaśatair nṛpaḥ | kaccid dṛṣṭo ’calāśreṣṭha vane ’smin dāruṇe nalaḥ ||
Bṛhadaśva said: “O best of mountains, by these hundreds of peaks you have, as it were, scratched and scored the very sky. Tell me—have you seen King Nala anywhere in this dreadful forest?”
बृहृदश्च उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights compassionate concern and persistent seeking in adversity: even amid fearsome wilderness, one does not abandon responsibility toward a suffering person (here, the lost king Nala).
Bṛhadaśva, searching for Nala, addresses a great mountain poetically—saying its many peaks seem to scrape the sky—and asks whether Nala has been seen anywhere in that dreadful forest.