Shloka 23

Duryodhana’s Account of Gandharva Defeat and the Pandavas’ Intervention (दुर्योधनवर्णितो गन्धर्वसंग्रामः)

Devanagari script

क्षेत्र सुकृष्टे हुपिते च बीजे देवे च वर्षत्यूतुकालयुक्तम्‌ । न स्यात्‌ फलं तस्य कुतः प्रसिद्धि- रन्यत्र दैवादिति चिन्तयामि,“मैं सोचता हूँ कि अच्छी तरह जोते हुए खेतमें बीज बोया जाय तथा ऋतुके अनुसार ठीक समयपर वर्षा भी हो, फिर भी उसमें फल न लगे, तो इसमें प्रारब्धके अतिरिक्त अन्य किसी कारणकी सिद्धि कैसे की जा सकती है?

Transliteration

kṣetre sukṛṣṭe hūpite ca bīje deve ca varṣaty ṛtukālayuktam | na syāt phalaṃ tasya kutaḥ prasiddhir anyatra daivād iti cintayāmi ||

Translation

Disse Vaiśampāyana: “Penso assim: mesmo quando o campo é bem arado, a semente é devidamente lançada e o deus da chuva envia aguaceiros na estação certa, se ainda assim a colheita não dá fruto, como se poderia estabelecer outra causa para esse fracasso senão o destino? É nisso que reflito.”

Word by Word

• {'kṣetre': 'in the field', 'sukṛṣṭe': 'well-ploughed, well-tilled', 'hūpite': 'properly sown/placed (of seed)', 'bīje': 'seed', 'deve': 'when the god (esp. rain-god) / the divine agency', 'varṣati': 'rains, sends rain', 'ṛtukāla-yuktam': 'in accordance with the proper season and time', 'na syāt': 'would not be / does not occur', 'phalam': 'fruit, result, yield', 'tasya': 'of that (undertaking/field)', 'kutaḥ': 'whence? how?', 'prasiddhiḥ': 'establishment, proof, accepted explanation', 'anyatra': 'elsewhere, other than', 'daivāt': 'from fate/destiny

• from divine ordinance', 'iti': 'thus', 'cintayāmi': 'I think, I reflect'}

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Vaiśampāyana
• kṣetra (field)
• bīja (seed)
• deva (divine agency/rain-god)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse uses an agrarian metaphor to argue that even when all visible causes—effort, proper method, and timely rain—are present, failure can still occur; therefore an unseen factor, called daiva (destiny/previously ripened karma), must be acknowledged alongside human endeavor.

What is happening in the narrative?

Vaiśampāyana, as narrator, presents a reflective maxim: he reasons about why outcomes sometimes do not match careful preparation, concluding that destiny (daiva) is the decisive explanation when ordinary causes appear complete.