Shloka 15

Devanagari script

पुरा विकुर्वते मूढा: पापात्मान: समागता:

Transliteration

purā vikurvate mūḍhāḥ pāpātmānaḥ samāgatāḥ

Translation

Disse Vaiśampāyana: «Outrora, homens iludidos e de índole pecaminosa, tendo-se reunido, puseram-se a agir de modo perverso—deturpando o que é reto e procedendo com astúcia danosa».

Word by Word

• पुरा: formerly; earlier
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: पुरा

• विकुर्वते: they act perversely / behave wrongly
• Type: Verb
• Root: वि + कृ
• Form: Lat (present indicative), Atmanepada, 3rd, plural

• मूढाः: deluded; foolish
• मूढाः: Karta
• Type: Adjective
• Root: मूढ
• Form: masculine, nominative, plural

• पापात्मानः: sinful-souled (wicked persons)
• पापात्मानः: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: पापात्मन्
• Form: masculine, nominative, plural

• समागताः: assembled; having come together
• समागताः: Karta
• Type: Verb
• Root: सम् + गम्
• Form: past passive participle (क्त), masculine, nominative, plural

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Vaiśampāyana

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights how moral delusion (mūḍhatā) and sinful intent (pāpātmatā), especially when reinforced by group association (samāgama), lead people to ‘act perversely’—twisting right conduct into harmful, unethical behavior.

What is happening in the narrative?

Vaiśampāyana, as narrator, introduces or recalls an earlier instance where a group of misguided, wicked-minded people assembled and began behaving in a distorted, wrongful manner—setting a moral backdrop for the events being recounted in this section of the Udyoga Parva.