Shloka 27
Hiḍimba’s Approach and Hiḍimbā’s Warning to Bhīmasena (हिडिम्बागमनम् / हिडिम्बा-भयवचनम्)
सखिभिन््यवसत् सार्ध व्याप्राखुवृकब भ्ुभि: । तेडपश्यन् विपिने तस्मिन् बलिनं मृगयूथपम्
sakhibhir nyavasat sārdhaṃ vyāghra-khādu-vṛka-bhūbhiḥ | te 'paśyan vipine tasmin balinaṃ mṛga-yūthapam ||
Sinabi ni Kaṇika: “Kasama ang kanyang mga kasama, nanirahan siya roon, sa gitna ng mga tigre, mababangis na hayop, at mga lobo. Sa gubat ding iyon, nakita nila ang isang makapangyarihang pinuno ng kawan ng usa.”
काणिक उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse sets up an allegory of the forest: power operates through predation and vulnerability. In Kāṇika’s counsel-context, it prepares an ethical tension—whether one should adopt ruthless, ‘predator-like’ strategies in politics, and what such a worldview implies about dharma.
Kāṇika describes a scene in which someone, staying in a forest with dangerous animals, notices a strong leader of a deer herd. The image functions as the opening of a political fable, where the ‘herd-leader’ becomes a figure for a ruler or prominent person observed by potential threats.