Shloka 17

युधिष्ठिरस्य अर्जुनप्रेषण-युक्तिवर्णनम् | Yudhiṣṭhira’s Rationale for Sending Arjuna and Request to Dhaumya

Devanagari script

त्रिरात्रमुषित: शाकं भक्षयित्वा नर: शुचि: । शाकाहारस्य यत्‌ किंचिद्‌ वर्षद्वादिशभि: कृतम्‌

Transliteration

trirātram uṣitaḥ śākaṃ bhakṣayitvā naraḥ śuciḥ | śākāhārasya yat kiñcid varṣadvādaśibhiḥ kṛtam

Translation

グーラースティヤは言った。「身を清め、三夜を過ごして葉菜のみを食する者は、十二年にわたり菜食のみの戒を修したときに生ずるあらゆる功徳を得る。」

Word by Word

त्रिरात्रम्for three nights

उषितःhaving stayed/dwelt

शाकम्greens/vegetables

भक्षयित्वाhaving eaten

नरःa man

शुचिःpure/clean

शाकाहारस्यof a diet of vegetables

यत्whatever/that which

किंचित्anything/something

वर्षद्वादशभिःby twelve years / with twelve years

कृतम्done/performed

Speaker

घुलस्त्य उवाच

Characters & Entities

Ghūlastya (speaker)

nara (a man/observer of the vow)

śāka (greens/leafy vegetables)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse teaches that disciplined restraint in diet, combined with purity, can yield great spiritual merit; even a short, sincere observance may equal the fruit of a much longer practice.

What is happening in the narrative?

Ghūlastya is describing the fruit (phala) of an austerity: staying for three nights while eating only greens, asserting that this brief observance grants the same merit attributed to maintaining a greens-only regimen for twelve years.