Shloka 17

Bhāgīrathī-tīra-śauca, Kurukṣetra-gamana, and Śatayūpa-āśrama-dīkṣā (गङ्गातीरशौच–कुरुक्षेत्रगमन–शतयूपाश्रमदीक्षा)

Devanagari script

वायुभक्षो निराहार: कृशो धमनिसन्ततः । कदाचिद्‌ दृश्यते विप्रै: शून्येडस्मिन्‌ कानने क्वचित्‌,*वे निरन्तर उपवास करते और वायु पीकर रहते हैं, इसलिये अत्यन्त दुर्बल हो गये हैं। उनके सारे शरीरमें व्याप्त हुई नस-नाड़ियाँ स्पष्ट दिखायी देती हैं। इस सूने वनमें ब्राह्मणोंको कभी-कभी कहीं उनके दर्शन हो जाया करते हैं!

Transliteration

vāyubhakṣo nirāhāraḥ kṛśo dhamanisantataḥ | kadācid dṛśyate vipraiḥ śūnye 'smin kānane kvacit ||

Translation

ヴァイシャンパーヤナは語った。彼は風を糧とし、ほかは断食しているため、ひどく痩せ衰え、全身に張り巡らされた血管と筋がありありと浮き出ている。この人跡まれな森では、バラモンたちが時おり、あちらこちらで彼の姿を見かけることがある——だがそれも稀である。

Word by Word

वायुभक्षःone who feeds on air

निराहारःwithout food; fasting

कृशःemaciated; thin

धमनिसन्ततःwith veins/sinews spread all over (clearly visible)

कदाचित्sometimes

दृश्यतेis seen; appears

विप्रैःby the brahmins

शून्येin the deserted (place)

अस्मिन्in this

काननेin the forest

क्वचित्somewhere; at times

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

Vaiśampāyana

viprāḥ (brahmins)

kānana (forest)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights the austerity of renunciation: extreme fasting and subsisting on air lead to bodily frailty, underscoring the ethical ideal of detachment from comfort and the seriousness of tapas undertaken in the forest stage of life.

What is happening in the narrative?

Vaiśampāyana describes an ascetic figure in the deserted forest who practices continuous fasting and lives on air; he has become so thin that his veins are visible, and brahmins only occasionally glimpse him wandering in that wilderness.