Mahabharata 3.52.35 — Vana Parva, Adhyaya 52, Shloka 35

Nala’s Embassy to Damayantī and the Gods’ Proposal (नलस्य दूतत्वं देवप्रस्तावश्च)

Devanagari script

यथैव कक्षमुत्सृष्टो दहेदनिलसारथि: । हनिष्यामि तथा मन्दमनुजानातु मे भवान्‌

Transliteration

yathaiva kakṣam utsṛṣṭo dahed anila-sārathiḥ | haniṣyāmi tathā mandam anujānātu me bhavān ||

Translation

Вайшампаяна сказал: «Как огонь, брошенный в кучу сухого хвороста и гонимый ветром, сжигает её дотла, обращая в пепел, так и я — если ты дашь мне дозволение — пойду и, насколько хватит моей силы, сражу тупоумного Дурьодхану. Прошу, разреши мне».

Word by Word

• {'yathā eva': 'just as, exactly in the same way', 'kakṣa': 'dry brushwood

• a thicket/heap of kindling', 'utsṛṣṭaḥ': 'released, set loose

• (here) kindled/let loose (of fire)', 'dahet': 'would burn (optative/conditional sense)', 'anila': 'wind', 'sārathiḥ': 'charioteer, driver

• metaphorically ‘one who drives’', 'anila-sārathiḥ': 'wind-driven (fire), ‘having the wind as its driver’', 'tathā': 'so, in that manner', 'haniṣyāmi': 'I will kill / I will slay', 'manda': 'dull, foolish, slow-witted', 'anujānātu': 'let (him/you) permit, grant leave', 'me': 'to me, my', 'bhavān': 'your honor

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Vaiśampāyana
• Duryodhana
• fire (agni)
• wind (anila)
• brushwood/heap of kindling (kakṣa)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse frames decisive action against wrongdoing through a vivid metaphor, but places that action under the discipline of authorization and counsel—violence is proposed, yet it is not taken unilaterally; permission and right context are treated as ethically significant.

What is happening in the narrative?

The speaker (reported by Vaiśampāyana) uses the image of wind-driven fire consuming brushwood to express readiness to go and kill Duryodhana, explicitly asking a respected superior for leave to do so.