Shloka 16

Brahmāstra-pratisaṃhāraḥ, Parīkṣit-nāmakaraṇam, Nagarotsava-varṇanam

Withdrawal of the Brahmāstra; Naming of Parīkṣit; Description of Civic Festivities

Devanagari script

श्रुत्वा स तस्या विपुलं विलापं पुरुषर्षभ: । उपस्पृश्य ततः कृष्णो ब्रह्मास्त्रं प्रत्यसंहरत्‌

Transliteration

śrutvā sa tasyā vipulaṃ vilāpaṃ puruṣarṣabhaḥ | upaspṛśya tataḥ kṛṣṇo brahmāstraṃ pratyasaṃharat |

Translation

သူမ၏ ပြင်းထန်လွန်ကဲသော ငိုကြွေးသံကို ကြားသော် လူတို့အထဲ၌ အမြတ်ဆုံး ကృష్ణသည် အရင်ဆုံး အာစမန (ācamana) ကို ပြု၍ စိတ်နှင့်ကိုယ်ကို သန့်စင်တည်ငြိမ်စေကာ၊ ထို့နောက် အရှွတ္ထာမန် ပစ်လွှတ်ခဲ့သော ဗြဟ္မာစတြာကို တားဆီး၍ ပြန်လည်ရုပ်သိမ်းစေ하였다။

Word by Word

• श्रुत्वा: having heard
• Type: Verb
• Root: श्रु (धातु)
• Form: क्त्वान्त अव्यय (absolutive/gerund)

• सः: he
• सः: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: तद् (सर्वनाम-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

• तस्याः: of her
• Type: Noun
• Root: तद् (सर्वनाम-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Feminine, Genitive, Singular

• विपुलम्: great, abundant
• Type: Adjective
• Root: विपुल (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Neuter, Accusative, Singular

• विलापम्: lamentation, wailing
• विलापम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: विलाप (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine, Accusative, Singular

• पुरुषर्षभः: bull among men, best of men
• पुरुषर्षभः: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: पुरुषर्षभ (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

• उपस्पृश्य: having sipped (water), having performed ācamana
• Type: Verb
• Root: उप + स्पृश् (धातु)
• Form: क्त्वान्त अव्यय (absolutive/gerund)

• ततः: then, thereafter
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: ततः (अव्यय)
• Form: अव्यय

• कृष्णः: Kṛṣṇa
• कृष्णः: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: कृष्ण (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

• ब्रह्मास्त्रम्: the Brahmā-weapon (Brahmāstra)
• ब्रह्मास्त्रम्: Karma
• Type: Noun
• Root: ब्रह्मास्त्र (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Neuter, Accusative, Singular

• प्रत्यसंहरत्: withdrew, retracted, neutralized
• Type: Verb
• Root: प्रति + सम् + हृ (धातु)
• Form: Imperfect (लङ्), Third, Singular, Parasmaipada

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Vaiśampāyana
• Kṛṣṇa
• Brahmāstra
• Aśvatthāman (implied as the launcher of the Brahmāstra)
• the lamenting woman (contextually Uttārā in this episode)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights dharmic restraint: even the most formidable force (Brahmāstra) must be checked when it threatens the blameless. Kṛṣṇa’s composed, ritualized action models disciplined power used for protection rather than retaliation.

What is happening in the narrative?

After hearing a woman’s anguished lament—arising from the danger posed by Aśvatthāman’s Brahmāstra—Kṛṣṇa performs ācamana and then neutralizes/withdraws the Brahmāstra, preventing its destructive effect.