Shloka 65
Duḥṣantasya Vana-praveśaḥ
King Duḥṣanta’s Entry into the Forest Hunt
मानुषौ जनयित्वा त्वं शापमोक्षमवाप्स्यसि । ततः सा जनयित्वा तौ विशस्ता मत्स्यघातिना
mānuṣau janayitvā tvaṃ śāpamokṣam avāpsyasi | tataḥ sā janayitvā tau viśastā matsyaghātinā
वैशंपायन म्हणाले—“दोन मानवी पुत्रांना जन्म दिल्यावर तू शापमुक्त होशील.” त्यानंतर तिने त्या दोघांना जन्म दिला आणि मग मत्स्यघातकाने तिला ठार केले.
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the moral logic of consequence: a curse is not merely punitive but structured with a condition for release. Liberation (mokṣa) here is earned through fulfilling a destined responsibility—bringing forth human offspring—after which the narrative turns to the tragic cost borne by the mother, underscoring how fate and ethical causality can unfold unevenly across persons.
A speaker foretells that the addressed person will be freed from a curse after begetting two human sons. Immediately after that condition is fulfilled, the woman who bore the two children is killed by a fisherman (described as a ‘slayer of fish’), marking a sharp narrative transition from promised release to sudden violence.