Shloka 14

Devanagari script

आश्रमे यो द्विजं हन्याद्‌ गां वा दद्यादनाश्रमे । कि तु तत्पातकं न स्यात्‌ तद्वा दत्तं वृथा भवेत्‌,“क्या यदि कोई आश्रममें रहकर ब्राह्मणकी हत्या करे तो उसे उसका पातक नहीं लगेगा और यदि कोई बिना आश्रमके स्थानमें गोदान करे तो क्या वह व्यर्थ हो जायेगा?

Transliteration

āśrame yo dvijaṃ hanyād gāṃ vā dadyād anāśrame | kiṃ tu tatpātakaṃ na syāt tad vā dattaṃ vṛthā bhavet ||

Translation

ഭീഷ്മൻ പറഞ്ഞു—ആശ്രമത്തിൽ പാർത്തു ഒരാൾ ബ്രാഹ്മണനെ വധിച്ചാൽ, ആ പാപം അവനിൽ പതിയാതിരിക്കുമോ? ആശ്രമമല്ലാത്ത സ്ഥലത്ത് ഗോദാനം ചെയ്താൽ, ആ ദാനം വ്യർത്ഥമാകുമോ?

Word by Word

आश्रमेin an āśrama (hermitage/monastic setting)

यःwho

द्विजम्a twice-born (Brahmin etc.)

हन्यात्might kill / should kill (hypothetical)

गाम्a cow

वाor

दद्यात्might give / should give (hypothetical)

अनाश्रमेin a non-āśrama place / outside an āśrama

किम्what? (interrogative; 'is it the case that...?')

तुbut / however

तत्that

पातकम्sin / guilt (a grave fault)

नnot

स्यात्would be

तद्that

वाor

दत्तम्given (gifted)

वृथाin vain / fruitlessly

भवेत्would become / would be

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

Bhīṣma

dvija (brāhmaṇa)

cow (go)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse frames a dharma-question: external setting (being in an āśrama or not) cannot magically cancel the moral weight of an act. Grave wrongdoing like killing a brāhmaṇa remains sinful, and a good act like gifting a cow is not automatically rendered worthless merely by location; the ethical quality of the deed is primary.

What is happening in the narrative?

In Śānti Parva’s dharma-discourse, Bhīṣma poses a probing doubt in the form of rhetorical questions, testing simplistic ideas that ‘place’ or ‘institution’ alone determines sin or merit. The line functions as a challenge that invites a more nuanced explanation of how dharma evaluates actions.