Shloka 3

Pānīya-dāna and Anna-dāna: The Primacy of Life-Sustaining Gifts (पानीयदान-प्रशंसा / अन्नदान-प्रशंसा)

Devanagari script

दत्तं किं फलवद्‌ राजन्निह लोके परत्र च | भवतः: श्रोतुमिच्छामि तन्मे विस्तरतो वद

Transliteration

yudhiṣṭhira uvāca | dattaṃ kiṃ phalavad rājann iha loke paratra ca | bhavataḥ śrotum icchāmi tan me vistarato vada rājann ||

Translation

اے راجن! اس دنیا اور اُس دنیا میں کون سا دان خاص طور پر پھل دینے والا ہے؟ میں یہ آپ ہی کے منہ سے سننا چاہتا ہوں۔ براہِ کرم اسے تفصیل سے بیان کیجیے۔

Word by Word

• [{'term': 'दत्तम् (dattam)', 'definition': 'a gift given

• that which is donated'}, {'term': 'किम् (kim)', 'definition': 'what? which?'}, {'term': 'फलवत् (phalavat)', 'definition': 'fruitful

• yielding results/reward'}, {'term': 'राजन् (rājan)', 'definition': 'O king (vocative address)'}, {'term': 'इह लोके (iha loke)', 'definition': 'in this world'}, {'term': 'परत्र (paratra)', 'definition': 'in the hereafter

• in the next world'}, {'term': 'भवतः (bhavataḥ)', 'definition': 'from you

• of you (honorific genitive/ablative sense)'}, {'term': 'श्रोतुम् (śrotum)', 'definition': 'to hear'}, {'term': 'इच्छामि (icchāmi)', 'definition': 'I desire

• I wish'}, {'term': 'तत् (tat)', 'definition': 'that (teaching/matter)'}, {'term': 'मे (me)', 'definition': 'to me

• for me'}, {'term': 'विस्तरतः (vistarataḥ)', 'definition': 'in detail

• expansively'}, {'term': 'वद (vada)', 'definition': 'tell

Speaker

युधिछ्िर उवाच

Characters & Entities

• युधिष्ठिर (Yudhiṣṭhira)
• राजन् (the addressed King—interlocutor)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse frames a dharma-inquiry: Yudhiṣṭhira asks which forms of giving (dāna) produce meaningful results both socially in this life and spiritually in the hereafter, inviting a detailed ethical hierarchy of gifts.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Anuśāsana Parva’s instructional setting, Yudhiṣṭhira addresses a kingly authority figure and requests an expanded explanation about the most rewarding kinds of charity, setting up a discourse on dāna and its consequences.