Shloka 20

Devanagari script

प्रमाणरागसम्पन्नान्‌ वड्क्षुतीरसमुद्धवान्‌ । बल्‍्यर्थ ददतस्तस्मै हिरण्यं रजतं बहु

Transliteration

pramāṇarāgasampannān vaḍkṣutīrasamudbhavān | balyarthaṃ dadatastasmai hiraṇyaṃ rajataṃ bahu

Translation

ဒုရ्यೋಧနက ပြောသည်— «သူတို့သည် အဆင့်အတန်းမှန်ကန်၍ မိမိသခင်အပေါ် သစ္စာနှောင်ကြိုးရှိသူများ၊ ဝဍ္ကṣu (Vaḍkṣu) မြစ်ကမ်းပါးတွင် မွေးဖွားသူများဖြစ်ကြ၏။ အခွန်အတင်အတွက်လည်း သူ့ထံသို့ ရွှေငွေ အလွန်များစွာ ပေးအပ်နေကြ၏»။

Word by Word

प्रमाणरागसम्पन्नान्endowed with due measure and affection (i.e., properly devoted)

वड्क्षुतीरसमुद्धवान्originating from the banks of the Vankṣu (Oxus) river

बल्यर्थम्for the purpose of tribute/offering

ददतः(he) gives / while giving

तस्मैto him

हिरण्यम्gold

रजतम्silver

बहुmuch / abundant

Speaker

दुर्योधन उवाच

Characters & Entities

द

दुर्योधन (Duryodhana)

व

वड्क्षु नदी (Vaḍkṣu river)

ह

हिरण्य (gold)

र

रजत (silver)

ब

बलि (tribute)

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 how rulers measure and project power through tribute and material wealth, raising an implicit ethical question central to the Sabha Parva: whether legitimacy comes from dharma and justice or from dominance, display, and enforced allegiance.

What is happening in the narrative?

Duryodhana is describing people associated with the Vaḍkṣu river region as respectable and loyal, and notes that they are paying substantial tribute—gold and silver—to a particular ruler, emphasizing the scale of wealth flowing into that ruler’s court.