Shloka 11
Kṣātra-Dharma, Daṇḍanīti, and Social Order
Indra–Māndhātṛ Dialogue
अत्र ते वर्तयिष्यामि धर्ममर्थविनिश्चयम् । निर्मयदि वर्तमाने दानवैकार्णवे पुरा,मैं इस विषयमें तात्चिक अर्थका निश्चय करनेवाला एक धर्ममय इतिहास सुनाऊँगा। पहलेकी बात है, यह सारा जगत् दानवताके समुद्रमें निमगन होकर उच्छुंखल हो चला था
atra te vartayiṣyāmi dharmam arthaviniścayam | nirmadī vartamāne dānavākarṇave purā ||
अत्र ते वर्तयिष्यामि धर्ममर्थविनिश्चयम् । निर्मर्यादे वर्तमाने दानवैकार्णवे पुरा ॥
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhīṣma frames the coming story as a decisive clarification of how artha (practical welfare and aims) must be judged through dharma; when society becomes lawless, only dharma can rightly determine what counts as true benefit.
Bhīṣma announces that he will narrate an ancient dharmic history. He sets the scene as a time when the world had become unruly, metaphorically drowned in an ‘ocean of Dānava-nature,’ preparing the listener for a corrective moral exemplum.