Shloka 29
Cyavana’s Water-Vow and the Ethics of Cohabitation (स्नेह-सम्वास-धर्मः)
कस्मात् तु विषमं भागं भजेरन् नृपसत्तम | यदा सर्वे त्रयो वर्णास्त्वियोक्ता ब्राह्मणा इति
Yudhiṣṭhira uvāca | kasmāt tu viṣamaṃ bhāgaṃ bhajeran nṛpasattama | yadā sarve trayo varṇās tvayoktā brāhmaṇā iti ||
Yudhiṣṭhira said: “O best of kings, why should they accept an unequal share? For when you have declared that the sons born of women belonging to the three varṇas—Brāhmaṇa and the rest—are to be regarded as Brāhmaṇas, on what grounds do they not receive an equal portion of the ancestral wealth?”
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames a dharma-based challenge: if a person’s recognized status is the same (here, being declared ‘Brāhmaṇa’), then justice demands consistency in rights—especially regarding inheritance—so unequal distribution requires a clear ethical and legal justification.
Yudhiṣṭhira questions a senior royal authority about rules of inheritance. He points out an apparent contradiction between declaring certain sons as Brāhmaṇas and yet assigning them unequal shares of paternal property, pressing for a coherent dharma rationale.