Shloka 99
नलस्य बाहुकत्वेन ऋतुपर्णनगरप्रवेशः
Nala as Bāhuka enters Ṛtuparṇa’s city
क्व सा पुण्यजला रम्या नदी द्विजनिषेविता । क्व नु ते ह नगा हृद्या: फलपुष्पोपशोभिता:,“वह पुण्यसलिला रमणीय नदी, जिसपर पक्षी निवास कर रहे थे, कहाँ चली गयी? फल और फूलोंसे सुशोभित वे मनोरम वृक्ष कहाँ विलीन हो गये!”
kva sā puṇyajalā ramyā nadī dvijanisevitā | kva nu te ha nagā hṛdyāḥ phalapuṣpopaśobhitāḥ ||
Bṛhadaśva nói: “Dòng sông xinh đẹp với làn nước thiêng—nơi các bậc ‘nhị sinh’ thường lui tới—nay đã đi đâu? Và những cây cối đáng yêu kia, rực rỡ trái và hoa, quả thật đã tan biến nơi nào?”
बृहृदश्च उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse evokes the sanctity of natural spaces—rivers and fruit-flowering trees—especially as places honored by the dvijas. It underscores how sacred landscapes support dharmic life (ritual purity, study, hospitality) and how their loss or disappearance becomes a moral and emotional rupture.
Bṛhadaśva speaks in a tone of searching and lament, asking where a once-beautiful, holy river and the surrounding fruit-and-flower-laden trees have gone. The questions convey disorientation and the sense that a familiar, life-sustaining landscape has changed or been left behind.