Kubera’s Arrival and the Disclosure of Agastya’s Curse
Vaiśaṃpāyana–Janamejaya Narrative
जहार धर्मराजानं यमौ कृष्णां च राक्षस: | ब्राह्मणो मन्त्रकुशलः सर्वशास्त्रविदुत्तम:
jahāra dharmarājānaṃ yamau kṛṣṇāṃ ca rākṣasaḥ | brāhmaṇo mantrakuśalaḥ sarvaśāstraviduttamaḥ ||
ဝိုင်ရှမ္ပါယနက ပြောသည်— ရက္ခသတစ်ကောင်သည် ဓမ္မရာဇ၊ ယမအမြွှာနှစ်ဦးနှင့် ကృష్ణာကိုပါ ခေါ်ဆောင်သွားလေ၏—မန်တရားကျွမ်းကျင်၍ ရှာစတြာအားလုံးကို သိသူတို့အနက် အထွတ်အထိပ်ဖြစ်သော ဗြာဟ္မဏအဖြစ် အသွင်ယူကာ။
वैशम्पायन उवाच
The verse cautions that adharma may masquerade as dharma: even a figure appearing as a learned brāhmaṇa, skilled in mantras and śāstras, can be a rākṣasa. Ethical vigilance requires judging conduct and intent, not merely external signs of piety or learning.
A rākṣasa abducts Dharmarāja (Yudhiṣṭhira), the twin brothers (Nakula and Sahadeva), and Draupadī (called Kṛṣṇā), presenting himself as a brāhmaṇa renowned for mantra-skill and śāstra-learning—setting up a crisis driven by deception and concealment.