Shloka 7

Tapas, Tīrtha, and Moral Rehabilitation (Śānti-parva 148)

Devanagari script

क्षुत्पिपासातपसह: कृशो धमनिसंततः

Transliteration

kṣutpipāsātapasahaḥ kṛśo dhamanisaṃtataḥ

Translation

क्षुत्पिपासातपसहः कृशो धमनिसंततः ॥

Word by Word

• क्षुत्-पिपासा-आतप-सहः: one who endures hunger, thirst, and heat
• क्षुत्-पिपासा-आतप-सहः: Karta
• Type: Adjective
• Root: क्षुत्पिपासातपसह
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

• कृशः: emaciated, lean
• कृशः: Karta
• Type: Adjective
• Root: कृश
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

• धमनि-संततः: with veins/arteries spread out (prominent)
• धमनि-संततः: Karta
• Type: Adjective
• Root: धमनिसंतत
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Singular

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhīṣma

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights the bodily cost of deprivation—hunger, thirst, and heat—often used in Śānti Parva to frame ethical reflection: true dharma and self-mastery are tested not in comfort but amid hardship, where endurance and restraint become morally significant.

What is happening in the narrative?

Bhīṣma is describing a person’s physical condition: weakened by lack of food and water and by exposure to heat, the person has grown gaunt, with veins visibly protruding—setting a vivid scene of austerity or distress within the ongoing instruction on dharma.