Shloka 38
Bhīṣma–Śiśupāla-saṃvādaḥ
Bhishma and Shishupala’s exchange in the assembly
ते त्वां हंससधर्माणमपीमे वसुधाधिपा: । निहन्युर्भीष्म संक्रुद्धा: पक्षिणस्तं यथाण्डजम्
te tvāṁ haṁsasadharmāṇam apīme vasudhādhipāḥ | nihanyur bhīṣma saṁkruddhāḥ pakṣiṇas taṁ yathāṇḍajam ||
汝もまたその白鳥と同じ性を具える。ゆえにこの諸王は憤怒して、今日汝を討つであろう、毗湿摩よ――かつて鳥たちが卵生のその白鳥を殺したように。これについては、プラーナに通じた賢者たちが古きガーターを歌い伝える。婆羅多の家の飾りよ、我はそれを明らかに語って聞かせよう。
शिशुपाल उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses a moralizing comparison: a person perceived as swan-like—distinct, proud, or set apart—may become a target of collective anger. It warns how public insult and factional rage in a royal assembly can turn into violence, and it frames the point through an exemplum (a remembered gāthā) to lend traditional authority.
Śiśupāla addresses Bhīṣma in the royal assembly, threatening that the assembled kings, provoked and furious, will kill him, likening Bhīṣma to a swan killed by other birds. He then signals that he will support his claim by narrating an old Purāṇic gāthā known to traditional scholars.