Shloka 7

सभा-पर्यवसान-प्रस्थानवचनम् | Counsel at the Point of Departure

Devanagari script

मृष्यन्ति कुरवश्लेमे मनन्‍्ये कालस्य पर्ययम्‌ । स्‍्नुषां दुहितरं चैव क्लिश्यमानामनर्हतीम्‌

Transliteration

mṛṣyanti kuravaḥ śleṣme manye kālasya paryayam | snuṣāṃ duhitaraṃ caiva kliśyamānām anarhatīm ||

Translation

Vaiśampāyana disse: “Os Kurus o suportam em silêncio; penso que este é um cruel volteio do Tempo. Pois aqui uma nora—na verdade, como uma filha—que não o merece está sendo atormentada, e ainda assim toda a linhagem Kuru o tolera.”

Word by Word

• {'mṛṣyanti': 'they endure, tolerate, put up with', 'kuravaḥ': 'the Kurus

• members of the Kuru dynasty', 'śleṣme': 'in silence

• with restraint (lit. ‘in phlegm’, i.e., without outward reaction)', 'manye': 'I think, I consider', 'kālasya': 'of Time (as a cosmic force bringing reversals)', 'paryayam': 'turning, change, reversal, adverse phase', 'snuṣām': 'daughter-in-law', 'duhitaraṃ': 'daughter', 'caiva': 'and indeed, and also', 'kliśyamānām': 'being afflicted, being tormented, suffering', 'anarhatīm': 'undeserving (of such suffering), not fit to be harmed'}

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Vaiśampāyana
• Kurus (Kuru dynasty)
• daughter-in-law (snuṣā)
• daughter (duhitṛ)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse condemns passive complicity: when a blameless woman—treated as a daughter of the house—is oppressed, the silent endurance of the Kuru elders becomes an ethical failure. It frames such moral collapse as a ‘reversal of Time’ (kālasya paryaya), highlighting how adharma spreads when those with authority do not intervene.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the dice-hall episode of the Sabha Parva, a Kuru daughter-in-law is being subjected to grievous distress, while the Kuru assembly remains restrained and non-reactive. The speaker observes that this collective tolerance signals a dark turn in circumstances and values within the Kuru lineage.