वैशंपायन उवाच
वसन् दुर्योधनस् तस्यां सभायां भरतर्षभ ॥
शनैर् ददर्श तां सर्वां सभां शकुनिना सह ॥
तस्यां दिव्यान् अभिप्रायान् ददर्श कुरुनन्दनः ॥
न दृष्टपूर्वा ये तेन नगरे नागसाह्वये ॥
स कदा चित् सभामध्ये धार्तराष्ट्रो महीपतिः ॥
स्फाटिकं तलम् आसाद्य जलम् इत्य् अभिशङ्कया ॥
स्ववस्त्रोत्कर्षणं राजा कृतवान् बुद्धिमोहितः ॥
दुर्मना विमुखश् चैव परिचक्राम तां सभाम् ॥
vaiśaṃpāyana uvāca
vasan duryodhanas tasyāṃ sabhāyāṃ bharatarṣabha ||
śanair dadarśa tāṃ sarvāṃ sabhāṃ śakuninā saha ||
tasyāṃ divyān abhiprāyān dadarśa kurunandanaḥ ||
na dṛṣṭapūrvā ye tena nagare nāgasāhvaye ||
sa kadā cit sabhāmadhye dhārtarāṣṭro mahīpatiḥ ||
sphāṭikaṃ talam āsādya jalam ity abhiśaṅkayā ||
svavastrotkarṣaṇaṃ rājā kṛtavān buddhimohitaḥ ||
durmanā vimukhaś caiva paricakrāma tāṃ sabhām ||
Dwelling in that hall, O bull of the Bharatas, Duryodhana together with Shakuni surveyed the whole chamber unhurriedly. The descendant of Kuru beheld in it wondrous arrangements such as he had never seen before in Hastinapura. Once, in the middle of the hall, the king, the son of Dhritarashtra, coming upon a crystal floor and suspecting it to be water, gathered up his garments, his mind bewildered; and, dejected, he turned away and wandered on through the hall.
b883406e60c4 · published Jul 16, 2026, 3:49:22 PM UTC
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The wondrous hall becomes a mirror of Duryodhana's own blindness: he cannot tell crystal from water, solid ground from a gleaming surface. It is telling that the very hall that delights the pure becomes for him a chain of deceptions -- he meets marvelous art not with wonder but with confusion. The verse teaches that the world reveals itself according to the eye that beholds it -- to the pure it opens as beauty, to the darkened mind it turns into a trap. And this first bewilderment before the crystal foretells something greater: one who cannot distinguish appearance from substance in a small matter will lose his way in a great one too. Blindness of heart distorts sight itself.