Shloka 20

गोशकृन्माहात्म्य-प्रश्नः (On the Merit of Cow-Dung and the Abode of Śrī) / Inquiry into the Sanctity of Cow-Dung

Devanagari script

सादे चर्मणि भुञज्जीत निरीक्षेद्‌ वारुणीं दिशम्‌ । वाग्यत: सर्पिषा भूमौ गवां पुष्टिं सदाश्नुते

Transliteration

sārdre carmaṇi bhuñjīta nirīkṣed vāruṇīṃ diśam | vāgyataḥ sarpiṣā bhūmau gavāṃ puṣṭiṃ sadāśnute ||

Translation

ဘီရှ္မက မိန့်တော်မူသည်– «စိုစွတ်ထားသော နွားအရေပြားပေါ်တွင် ထိုင်၍ အစာစားရမည်၊ အနောက်ဘက်သို့ မျက်နှာမူရမည်။ စကားမပြောဘဲ မြေပေါ်တွင် ထိုင်ကာ ဂျီ(ထောပတ်ရည်)ကို စားသုံးရမည်။ ဤအကျင့်အားဖြင့် နွားတို့၏ စည်းစိမ်နှင့် အာဟာရပြည့်ဝမှုသည် အစဉ်တိုးပွားစေသည်»။

Word by Word

• सादे: on the wet (hide)
• सादे: Adhikarana
• Type: Noun
• Root: साद (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine, Locative, Singular

• चर्मणि: on a hide/skin
• चर्मणि: Adhikarana
• Type: Noun
• Root: चर्मन् (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Neuter, Locative, Singular

• भुञ्जीत: should eat
• Type: Verb
• Root: भुज् (धातु)
• Form: Optative (Vidhi-lin), Third, Singular, Parasmaipada

• निरीक्षेत्: should look (towards)
• Type: Verb
• Root: नि-ईक्ष् (धातु)
• Form: Optative (Vidhi-lin), Third, Singular, Parasmaipada

• वारुणीम्: Varuṇa’s (i.e., western)
• वारुणीम्: Karma
• Type: Adjective
• Root: वारुणी (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Feminine, Accusative, Singular

• दिशम्: direction
• दिशम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: दिश् (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Feminine, Accusative, Singular

• वाक्-यतः: restrained in speech; silent
• वाक्-यतः: Karta
• Type: Adjective
• Root: वाक्यत (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

• सर्पिषा: with ghee
• सर्पिषा: Karana
• Type: Noun
• Root: सर्पिस् (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Neuter, Instrumental, Singular

• भूमौ: on the ground
• भूमौ: Adhikarana
• Type: Noun
• Root: भूमि (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Feminine, Locative, Singular

• गवाम्: of cows
• Type: Noun
• Root: गो (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Feminine, Genitive, Plural

• पुष्टिम्: nourishment, thriving
• पुष्टिम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: पुष्टि (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Feminine, Accusative, Singular

• सदा: always
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: सदा

• अश्नुते: obtains/attains
• Type: Verb
• Root: अश् (धातु)
• Form: Present (Lat), Third, Singular, Atmanepada

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhīṣma
• Varuṇa (implied by vāruṇī diś)
• western direction
• cowhide (go-carma)
• ghee (sarpiṣ)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Bhīṣma prescribes a small, disciplined observance—sitting on a moistened cowhide, facing west, maintaining silence, and consuming ghee—as a dharmic act believed to support the continual nourishment and increase of cattle, emphasizing restraint and reverence toward cow-related sustenance.

What is happening in the narrative?

Within Bhīṣma’s instruction on dharma in the Anuśāsana Parva, he gives Yudhiṣṭhira a specific rule-like practice (vidhi) connected with cattle welfare, describing the posture, direction, and restraint to be observed and the resulting benefit (cattle thriving).