Shloka 29

Devanagari script

द्यां युगं युगचर्माणि संवर्तकबलाहकान्‌ । कालपृष्ठोडथ नहुष: कर्कोटकधनंजयौ,झ्ुलोकको भी जूएमें ही स्थान दिया। प्रलयकालके मेघोंको युगचर्म बनाया। कालपृष्ठ, नहुष, कर्कोटक, धनंजय तथा दूसरे-दूसरे नाग घोड़ोंके केसर बाँधनेकी रस्सी बनाये गये। दिशाओं और विदिशाओंने रथमें जुते हुए घोड़ोंकी बागडोरका भी रूप धारण किया

Transliteration

dyāṃ yugaṃ yugacarmāṇi saṃvartakabalāhakān | kālapṛṣṭho ’tha nahuṣaḥ karkoṭakadhanaṃjayau ||

Translation

ಆಕಾಶವೇ ಯುಗವಾಯಿತು; ಯುಗಗಳ ಚರ್ಮಗಳು ಯುಗಚರ್ಮಗಳಾದವು; ಪ್ರಳಯಕಾಲದ ಮೇಘಗಳು ಬಂಧನೋಪಕರಣಗಳಾದವು. ಕಾಲಪೃಷ್ಠ, ನಹುಷ, ಕರ್ಕೋಟಕ, ಧನಂಜಯ ಮೊದಲಾದ ನಾಗರು ಹಾಗೂ ಇತರರು ಕುದುರೆಗಳ ಕೇಶ ಕಟ್ಟುವ ಕಯಿಗಳಾದರು; ದಿಕ್ಕುಗಳು ಮತ್ತು ಉಪದಿಕ್ಕುಗಳು ರಥಾಶ್ವಗಳ ಬಾಗಡೋರಗಳಾದವು।

Word by Word

द्याम्heaven, sky

युगम्yoke; age/epoch

युगचर्माणिyoke-leathers (straps made of hide for the yoke)

संवर्तकबलाहकान्the world-dissolution clouds (pralaya-clouds)

कालपृष्ठःKālapṛṣṭha (a nāga name; 'time-backed')

उतand; also

नहुषःNahuṣa (a nāga name)

कर्कोटकःKarkoṭaka (a nāga name)

धनंजयःDhanañjaya (a nāga name; also an epithet of Arjuna)

चand

Speaker

दुर्योधन उवाच

Characters & Entities

Duryodhana

Dyauḥ (Sky/Heaven)

Yuga (cosmic age, as metaphor)

Saṃvartaka Balāhaka (pralaya clouds)

Kālapṛṣṭha (nāga)

Nahuṣa (nāga)

Karkoṭaka (nāga)

Dhanaṃjaya (nāga)

Nāgas (serpents)

Diśas (directions)

Vidiśas (intermediate directions)

Yoke

Yoke-straps

Reins

Horse-mane fastening ropes

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 illustrates how a warrior-king’s rhetoric can inflate human conflict into cosmic inevitability. Ethically, it warns that grandiose self-justification and fascination with power can eclipse discernment (dharma-vicāra) and the duty to restrain violence.

What is happening in the narrative?

Duryodhana describes an imagined, cosmic-scale chariot harnessing: sky as yoke, pralaya-clouds as gear, nāgas as fastening ropes, and the directions as reins. It is a poetic intensification of the war’s magnitude and his own martial resolve.