Shloka 2

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

Devanagari script

केन तुष्यन्ति ते सद्यः किं तुष्टा: प्रदिशन्ति च । शंस मे तन्‍्महाबाहो फल पुण्यकृतं महत्‌

Transliteration

kena tuṣyanti te sadyaḥ kiṁ tuṣṭāḥ pradiśanti ca | śaṁsa me tan mahābāho phalaṁ puṇyakṛtaṁ mahat ||

Translation

Yudhiṣṭhira thưa: “Do bố thí vật gì mà các Bà-la-môn ấy lập tức hoan hỷ, và khi đã hoan hỷ thì họ ban lại điều gì? Hỡi bậc dũng lực, xin nói cho ta biết quả lớn—công đức cao cả—phát sinh từ việc bố thí.”

Word by Word

• {'kena': 'by what? by which means or gift (instrumental of ‘kim’)', 'tuṣyanti': 'are satisfied, become pleased', 'te': 'they (here: brāhmaṇas, implied by context)', 'sadyaḥ': 'immediately, at once', 'kim': 'what?', 'tuṣṭāḥ': 'being satisfied

• pleased (past participle)', 'pradiśanti': 'grant, bestow, confer (in return or as a blessing)', 'ca': 'and', 'śaṁsa': 'tell, declare, explain', 'me': 'to me', 'tat': 'that (matter)', 'mahābāho': 'O mighty-armed one (honorific address)', 'phalam': 'fruit, result, outcome', 'puṇyakṛtam': 'produced by merit

• arising from virtuous action (especially dāna)', 'mahat': 'great, lofty, abundant'}

Speaker

युधिछ्िर उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Yudhiṣṭhira
• Brāhmaṇas (implied)
• Mahābāhu (addressee, implied)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse frames dāna (giving) as a central ethical practice: Yudhiṣṭhira seeks to know which forms of giving most quickly bring genuine satisfaction to worthy recipients (brāhmaṇas) and what spiritual or moral ‘fruit’ (phala/puṇya) such giving yields. It sets up a discussion on discerning, purposeful charity rather than indiscriminate giving.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Anuśāsana Parva’s instruction on dharma, Yudhiṣṭhira questions the revered instructor (addressed as ‘Mahābāhu’) about the immediate effects of gifts: what makes brāhmaṇas pleased and what blessings or benefits they confer when pleased, and he asks for an account of the great merit resulting from charitable acts.