Shloka 3

Devanagari script

संजय उवाच शृणु राजन प्रवक्ष्यामि यथावृत्तं नराधिप । राज्ञा यदुक्त भग्नेन तस्मिन्‌ व्यसन आगते

Transliteration

sañjaya uvāca śṛṇu rājan pravakṣyāmi yathāvṛttaṃ narādhipa | rājñā yad uktaṃ bhagnena tasmin vyasana āgate ||

Translation

Sañjaya berkata: “Dengarlah, wahai Raja; akan aku ceritakan dengan tepat sebagaimana yang berlaku, wahai tuan manusia—apa yang diucapkan oleh raja itu ketika dia telah hancur dan malapetaka menimpanya.”

Word by Word

संजयःSanjaya

उवाचsaid

शृणुlisten

राजन्O king

प्रवक्ष्यामिI shall tell

यथाas, according to how

वृत्तम्what happened, the event

नराधिपO lord of men (king)

राज्ञाby the king

यत्what, that which

उक्तम्said, spoken

भग्नेनby the defeated (one)

तस्मिन्in that

व्यसनेin calamity, in misfortune

आगतेhaving come, when (it) had arrived

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

Sañjaya

King (Dhṛtarāṣṭra, implied by address rājan)

the king who was broken/defeated (unnamed here)

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 highlights truthful reporting (yathāvṛttam) and the ethical need to evaluate speech arising from defeat and calamity; it suggests that words spoken in distress reveal character and the consequences of adharma in war.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya addresses the king and prepares to recount, exactly as it happened, what a certain king said when overwhelmed—defeated and struck by misfortune—setting up the next lines as a report of that speech.