Shloka 29157

सक्तुदानमहिमा — The Merit of Justly-Earned Charity

Kapotī Brāhmaṇa and Dharma as Atithi

Devanagari script

(दाक्षिणात्य अधिक पाठके १२२० श्लोक मिलाकर कुल १२७३ श्लोक हैं) ऑपन-- मा बछ। अप ऋाल ।।

Transliteration

dākṣiṇātya adhika-pāṭhake 1220 śloka milākara kula 1273 ślokāḥ santi | āśvamedhika-parva sampūrṇam | anuṣṭup (anya baḍe chanda) baḍe chandōṃ ko 32 akṣaroṃ ke kula-yoga ko anuṣṭup mānakara ginane para uttara-bhāratīya-pāṭhase liye gaye 2747 || (122) 168

Translation

毗湿摩波耶那以题记体例记曰：在南方本（Dakṣiṇātya）中另增一千二百二十颂，使此段总数为一千二百七十三颂；由此《马祭篇》告终。至于韵律计数，较长格律有时折算为阿努什图布（Anuṣṭubh）之等值数，以每三十二音节合计为一首阿努什图布；按此法，北方本得数为二千七百四十七。此段为编校与格律统计之记账文字，并非叙事训诫；它标示本篇的正式完结，并提示文本异同之数据。

Word by Word

• [{'term': 'दाक्षिणात्य (dākṣiṇātya)', 'definition': 'southern

• pertaining to the Southern recension/tradition'}, {'term': 'अधिक-पाठ (adhika-pāṭha)', 'definition': 'additional reading

• extra textual material/variant'}, {'term': 'श्लोक (śloka)', 'definition': 'a verse

• commonly a metrical unit in epic Sanskrit'}, {'term': 'कुल (kula)', 'definition': 'total

• sum'}, {'term': 'आश्वमेधिकपर्व (āśvamedhika-parva)', 'definition': 'the Aśvamedhika Parva

• the book dealing with the horse-sacrifice context and its aftermath'}, {'term': 'सम्पूर्णम् (sampūrṇam)', 'definition': 'completed

• concluded'}, {'term': 'अनुष्टुप् (anuṣṭup)', 'definition': 'the common epic metre (śloka-metre), often used as a counting standard'}, {'term': 'छन्दस् (chandas)', 'definition': 'metre

• poetic prosody'}, {'term': 'अक्षर (akṣara)', 'definition': 'syllable (in metrical counting)'}, {'term': 'उत्तर-भारतीय-पाठ (uttara-bhāratīya-pāṭha)', 'definition': 'Northern Indian recension/reading'}]

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Vaiśampāyana
• Āśvamedhika Parva
• Dakṣiṇātya (Southern recension)
• Uttara-bhāratīya pāṭha (Northern recension)
• Anuṣṭubh metre

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

This passage does not present a moral teaching in the usual narrative sense; it functions as a colophon and editorial note, emphasizing the careful preservation of the Mahābhārata through different recensions and the scholarly practice of standardizing metrical counts.

What is happening in the narrative?

The narrator Vaiśampāyana marks the completion of the Āśvamedhika Parva and reports verse-count differences between the Southern and Northern textual traditions, including a method for converting longer metres into an equivalent Anuṣṭubh-based count.