Mahabharata — Anushasana Parva, Shloka 97

Puṣkara-Śapatha Itihāsa (Agastya–Indra Dispute at the Tīrthas) | पुष्कर-शपथ-आख्यानम्

Devanagari script

यातुधान्युवाच नामनैरुक्तमेतत्‌ ते दुःखव्याभाषिताक्षरम्‌ | नैतद्‌ धारयितुं शक्‍्यं गच्छावतर पद्मिनीम्‌

Transliteration

yātudhānī uvāca nāma-nairuktam etat te duḥkha-vyābhāṣitākṣaram | na etad dhārayituṁ śakyaṁ gacchāvatara padminīm ||

Translation

ယာတုဓာနီက ပြောသည်– «အို မဟာဒေဝီ၊ သင်၏နာမကို သင်ရှင်းပြထားသော ဤအဓိပ္ပါယ်ဖော်ပြချက်သည် ငါ့အတွက် အသံထွက်ရန် နာကျင်စေသော အက္ခရာများဖြင့် ဖွဲ့ထားသည်။ ငါ မမှတ်သားနိုင်။ လာ—ကြာကန်ထဲသို့ ဝင်လော့»။

Word by Word

• [{'term': 'yātudhānī', 'definition': 'a female yātudhāna

• a demoness/ogress (often associated with harmful, deceptive beings)'}, {'term': 'uvāca', 'definition': 'said, spoke'}, {'term': 'nāma', 'definition': 'name'}, {'term': 'nairukta', 'definition': 'etymological explanation

• derivation/interpretation of a word (nirukta)'}, {'term': 'etat te', 'definition': 'this of yours

• this that you have (said)'}, {'term': 'duḥkha', 'definition': 'pain, difficulty, distress'}, {'term': 'vyābhāṣita', 'definition': 'pronounced/uttered (with effort)

• spoken out'}, {'term': 'akṣara', 'definition': 'syllable

• imperishable letter/sound-unit'}, {'term': 'na etad', 'definition': 'not this

• this I cannot'}, {'term': 'dhārayitum', 'definition': 'to hold, retain, remember'}, {'term': 'śakyam', 'definition': 'possible, feasible'}, {'term': 'gaccha', 'definition': 'go

• come (imperative)'}, {'term': 'avatara', 'definition': 'descend

• enter (imperative)'}, {'term': 'padminīm', 'definition': 'lotus-pond

Speaker

विश्वामित्र उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Yātudhānī
• Devī (goddess, addressed)
• Padminī (lotus-pond)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights how sacred or meaningful speech (such as a name’s etymological sense) can be resisted or rejected by those of impure intent; it implies that clarity of naming and truthful articulation carry ethical weight, while evasiveness and refusal to ‘hold’ the teaching signal deception.

What is happening in the narrative?

A demoness (Yātudhānī) responds to a goddess, claiming that the goddess’s explanation of her own name is too difficult to pronounce or remember, and then urges her to enter a lotus-pond—suggesting an attempt to divert or lure her into a situation that may be dangerous.