Shloka 20
गच्छ राजन्नितः सूतो बाहुको5हमिति ब्रुवन् । समीपमृतुपर्णस्य स हि चैवाक्षनैपुण:,“राजन! अब आप यहाँसे अपनेको बाहुक नामक सूत बताते हुए राजा ऋतुपर्णके समीप जाइये। वे द्यूतविद्यामें बड़े निपुण हैं
bṛhadaśva uvāca |
gaccha rājann itaḥ sūto bāhuko’ham iti bruvan |
samīpam ṛtuparṇasya sa hi caivākṣanaipuṇaḥ ||
ਹੇ ਰਾਜਨ! ਹੁਣ ਇੱਥੋਂ ਚੱਲ ਅਤੇ ਆਪਣੇ ਆਪ ਨੂੰ ‘ਬਾਹੁਕ’ ਨਾਮ ਦਾ ਸੂਤ (ਸਾਰਥੀ) ਕਹਿ ਕੇ ਰਾਜਾ ਰਿਤੁਪਰਣ ਦੇ ਕੋਲ ਜਾ; ਕਿਉਂਕਿ ਉਹ ਅਕਸ਼-ਵਿਦਿਆ (ਜੂਏ ਦੀ ਵਿਦਿਆ) ਵਿੱਚ ਬਹੁਤ ਨਿਪੁਣ ਹੈ।
ब॒हदश्व उवाच
Educational Q&A
Strategic humility and purposeful learning: the king is advised to adopt a modest identity to approach a master of a specific skill (dicing). The episode underscores that regaining one’s rightful state may require restraint, discretion, and acquiring knowledge—even from morally risky domains—while keeping the larger dharmic aim in view.
Bṛhadaśva instructs the king (Nala, in the Nala-upākhyāna context) to leave and go to King Ṛtuparṇa, introducing himself as a charioteer named Bāhuka. Ṛtuparṇa is renowned for expertise in dice, and this contact becomes a means for Nala to recover competence and move toward resolving the consequences of his earlier loss.