Shloka 39

उलूकदूतवाक्यम् / Ulūka’s Message to the Pāṇḍavas

Devanagari script

गते रामे तीर्थयात्रां भीष्मकस्य सुते तथा । उपाविशन्‌ पाण्डवेया मन्त्राय पुनरेव च,बलरामजीके तीर्थयात्रामें और भीष्मकपुत्र रुक्मीके अपने नगरको चले जानेपर पाण्डवोंने पुनः गुप्त मन्त्रणाके लिये बैठक की

Transliteration

gate rāme tīrthayātrāṃ bhīṣmakasya sute tathā | upāviśan pāṇḍaveyā mantrāya punar eva ca ||

Translation

ဝိုင်သမ္ပာယနက ပြောသည်– «ရာမ (ဗလရာမ) သည် တီर्थယာထရာသို့ ထွက်ခွာသွားပြီး၊ ဘိရှ္မက၏ သား (ရုက္မီ) လည်း မိမိမြို့သို့ ပြန်သွားသောအခါ ပাণ্ডု၏ သားများသည် လျှို့ဝှက် အကြံပေးဆွေးနွေးရန် ထပ်မံ ထိုင်ကြလေ၏»။

Word by Word

गतेwhen (he) had gone

रामेin/with Rama (Balarama)

तीर्थयात्राम्pilgrimage (journey to sacred fords)

भीष्मकस्यof Bhishmaka

सुतेwhen the son (was gone)

तथाalso/likewise

उपाविशन्sat down

पाण्डवेयाःthe Pandavas (sons of Pandu)

मन्त्रायfor counsel/consultation

पुनःagain

एवindeed/just

चand

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

Vaiśampāyana

Rāma (Balarāma)

Bhīṣmaka

Bhīṣmaka’s son (Rukmī)

Pāṇḍavas

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights prudent governance: when external parties depart and distractions subside, leaders should deliberate privately and carefully. Ethical action in crisis is supported by thoughtful counsel (mantra), not impulsive reaction.

What is happening in the narrative?

Balarāma leaves on a pilgrimage, and Rukmī (Bhīṣmaka’s son) returns to his city. With these figures gone, the Pāṇḍavas convene again for a confidential strategy discussion as events move toward confrontation.