Mahabharata 9.39.8 — Shalya Parva, Adhyaya 39, Shloka 8

Ārṣṭiṣeṇa’s Siddhi and the Tīrtha-Boons; Sindhudvīpa–Devāpi Brāhmaṇya; Viśvāmitra’s Tapas Begins

Devanagari script

जनमेजय उवाच कपालमोचन ब्रह्मन्‌ कथं यत्र महामुनि:

Transliteration

janamejaya uvāca kapālamocana brahman kathaṁ yatra mahāmuniḥ

Translation

Джанамеджая спросил: «О брахман, о Капаламочана, как это произошло там, о великий мудрец?»

Word by Word

• जनमेजयः: Janamejaya
• जनमेजयः: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: जनमेजय
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

• उवाच: said
• Type: Verb
• Root: वच्
• Form: Perfect, Third, Singular

• कपालमोचन: O (you) who are the remover of the skull (sin); O Kapālamocana
• कपालमोचन: Sampradana
• Type: Noun
• Root: कपालमोचन
• Form: Neuter, Vocative, Singular

• ब्रह्मन्: O Brahmin
• ब्रह्मन्: Sampradana
• Type: Noun
• Root: ब्रह्मन्
• Form: Masculine, Vocative, Singular

• कथम्: how?
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: कथम्

• यत्र: where
• यत्र: Adhikarana
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: यत्र

• महामुनिः: the great sage
• महामुनिः: Karta
• Type: Noun
• Root: महामुनि
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

Speaker

जनमेजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Janamejaya
• Kapālamocana (epithet/name used in address)
• Brāhmaṇa (the interlocutor)
• Mahāmuni (great sage)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse models dharmic inquiry: a ruler (Janamejaya) seeks a precise account from a learned authority, showing that ethical understanding begins with careful questioning and respect for wisdom, especially regarding acts that may involve sin and expiation (suggested by the epithet Kapālamocana).

What is happening in the narrative?

Janamejaya addresses the Brāhmaṇa narrator/sage and asks how a particular event occurred ‘there’—a transition line that prompts the sage to explain the next episode in the Shalya Parva narrative.