Shloka 49

Bhaṅgāśvanopākhyāna — On comparative affection in strī–puruṣa union (भङ्गाश्वनोपाख्यानम्)

Devanagari script

वरं च वृणु राजेन्द्र यं त्वमिच्छसि सुव्रत । पुरुषत्वमथ स्त्रीत्वं मत्तो यदभिकाडुक्षते

Transliteration

varaṁ ca vṛṇu rājendra yaṁ tvam icchasi suvrata | puruṣatvam atha strītvam matto yad abhikāṅkṣate ||

Translation

«အို မင်းမြတ်၊ သီလဝတ္တကောင်းမြတ်သူ၊ သင်လိုချင်သမျှ အခြားကောင်းချီးတစ်ပါးကိုလည်း ရွေးချယ်ပါ။ ယောက်ျားပြန်ဖြစ်လိုသလား၊ မိန်းမအဖြစ်ပင် နေလိုသလား။ သင်၏နှလုံးသားလိုအင်ကို ငါ့ထံမှ တောင်းလော့»။

Word by Word

• वरम्: boon
• वरम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: वर
• Form: Masculine, Accusative, Singular

• च: and
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: च

• वृणु: choose (you)
• Type: Verb
• Root: वृ (वृणोति)
• Form: Imperative, Second, Singular, Parasmaipada

• राजेन्द्र: O king of kings
• Type: Noun
• Root: राजेन्द्र
• Form: Masculine, Vocative, Singular

• यम्: which/whom
• यम्: Karma
• Type: Pronoun
• Root: यद्
• Form: Masculine, Accusative, Singular

• त्वम्: you
• त्वम्: Karta
• Type: Pronoun
• Root: त्वद्
• Form: Nominative, Singular

• इच्छसि: you desire
• Type: Verb
• Root: इष् (इच्छति)
• Form: Present, Second, Singular, Parasmaipada

• सुव्रत: O one of good vows/observances
• Type: Adjective
• Root: सुव्रत
• Form: Masculine, Vocative, Singular

• पुरुषत्वम्: manhood
• पुरुषत्वम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: पुरुषत्व
• Form: Neuter, Accusative, Singular

• अथ: or/then
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: अथ

• स्त्रीत्वम्: womanhood
• स्त्रीत्वम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: स्त्रीत्व
• Form: Neuter, Accusative, Singular

• मत्तः: from me
• मत्तः: Apadana
• Type: Pronoun
• Root: अस्मद्
• Form: Ablative, Singular

• यत्: whatever/that which
• यत्: Karma
• Type: Pronoun
• Root: यद्
• Form: Neuter, Accusative, Singular

• अभिकाङ्क्षसे: you desire/long for
• Type: Verb
• Root: अभि-काॢक्ष्/काङ्क्ष् (काङ्क्षते)
• Form: Present, Second, Singular, Atmanepada

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhishma
• Rājendra (addressed king)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights ethical agency and the honoring of vows: a righteous elder offers a boon without coercion, emphasizing that one should choose according to one’s true desire and disciplined commitment (suvrata), rather than social pressure.

What is happening in the narrative?

Bhishma addresses a king respectfully and offers an additional boon, explicitly presenting a choice between returning to manhood or remaining in womanhood, indicating a situation involving a prior transformation and the possibility of reversal through a granted boon.