Shloka 5

Devanagari script

वैशम्पायन उवाच शृणु राजन्निदं चित्र पूर्वकल्पे यथातथम्‌ । आदी कृतयुगे राजन्‌ वर्तमाने यथाविधि

Transliteration

Vaiśampāyana uvāca: śṛṇu rājann idaṃ citraṃ pūrvakalpe yathātatham | ādau kṛtayuge rājan vartamāne yathāvidhi ||

Translation

Vaiśampāyana nói: “Hãy lắng nghe, hỡi Đại vương, câu chuyện kỳ diệu này, đúng như đã xảy ra trong một thời đại xưa. Thuở ban đầu, trong Kṛta Yuga, hỡi Đại vương, khi muôn sự vận hành theo đúng pháp tắc đã định…”

Word by Word

वैशम्पायनःVaishampayana

उवाचsaid

शृणुlisten

राजन्O king

इदम्this

चित्रम्wonderful/strange

पूर्वकल्पेin a former kalpa (previous aeon)

यथाas/how

तथम्so/just so

आदीat first/in the beginning

कृतयुगेin the Krita Yuga

राजन्O king

वर्तमानेwhile (it was) prevailing/being present

यथाas/according to

विधिrule/ordinance

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

Vaiśampāyana

rājan (the king addressed)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse foregrounds fidelity to tradition and truth in narration—an ethical commitment to report events “as they really happened,” and it invokes the Kṛta Yuga as a paradigm of dharma functioning according to prescribed order (vidhi).

What is happening in the narrative?

Vaiśampāyana addresses the king and introduces a remarkable account from a former age, setting a temporal frame (“in the beginning, in the Kṛta Yuga”) before proceeding to the story that follows.