Shloka 25
Ārjava, Satya, and the Virocana–Sudhanvan Exemplum
Udyoga-parva 35
अनिज्यया कुविवाहैरवेदस्योत्सादनेन च | कुलान्यकुलतां यान्ति धर्मस्यातिक्रमेण च,यज्ञ न होनेसे, निन्दित कुलमें विवाह करनेसे, वेदका त्याग और धर्मका उल्लंघन करनेसे उत्तम कुल भी अधम हो जाते हैं
anijyayā kuvivāhair avedasyotsādanena ca | kulāny akulatāṁ yānti dharmasyātikrameṇa ca ||
Видура предостерегает: Из-за неисполнения жертвоприношений (яджны), браков с порицаемыми родами, отвержения Вед и нарушения дхармы даже высокие семьи приходят к бесчестью и становятся низкими.
विदुर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Vidura teaches that a clan’s nobility is sustained by dharma in practice—maintaining sacred rites (yajña), honoring Vedic authority, and observing ethical norms in marriage and conduct. When these supports are rejected, social prestige and inner virtue collapse, and even eminent families become degraded.
In Udyoga Parva, Vidura offers counsel grounded in dharma and statecraft. Here he cautions that collective decline is not sudden but caused by specific moral failures—neglect of ritual duty, socially and ethically censured alliances, rejection of the Veda, and general violation of dharma—warning the Kuru context against choices that corrode the kingdom’s moral legitimacy.