Shloka 13
Parṇāda’s Report; Bāhuka’s Counsel; Damayantī’s Strategic Svayaṃvara Message (अध्याय ६८)
विदर्भसरसस्तस्माद् दैवदोषादिवोद्धताम् । मलपड्कानुलिप्ताजुीं मृणालीमिव चोद्धृताम्,विदर्भरूपी सरोवरसे यह कमलिनी मानो प्रारब्धके दोषसे निकाल ली गयी है। इसके मलिन अंग कीचड़ लिपटी हुई नलिनीके समान प्रतीत होते हैं। यह उस पूर्णिमाकी रजनीके समान जान पड़ती है, जिसके चन्द्रमापर मानो राहुने ग्रहण लगा रखा हो। पति-शोकसे व्याकुल और दीन होनेके कारण यह सूखे जल-प्रवाहवाली सरिताके समान प्रतीत होती है
vidarbhasarasas tasmād daivadoṣād ivoddhatām | malapaṅkānuliptāṅgīṁ mṛṇālīm iva coddhṛtām ||
Yudhiṣṭhira said: “From that lake of Vidarbha she seems, as it were, to have been torn out by a fault of destiny—like a lotus-stalk pulled up, its limbs smeared with mud and mire. Thus does she appear: wrenched from her proper place, sullied by suffering, and made pitiable by the force of adverse fate.”
युदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how adverse destiny (daiva-doṣa) can uproot a person from their rightful place and dignity, urging the listener to respond with compassion rather than blame, and to recognize the ethical demand to protect the afflicted.
Yudhiṣṭhira describes a distressed woman (implied by the feminine forms) through a vivid simile: she is like a lotus-stalk dragged from a lake and smeared with mud—an image meant to convey her being forcibly displaced and made pitiable by misfortune.