निशितांश् चैव दीर्घासीन् ऋष्टिशक्तिपरश्वधान् ॥
अपरान्तसमुद्भूतांस् तथैव परशूञ् शितान् ॥
रसान् गन्धांश् च विविधान् रत्नानि च सहस्रशः ॥
बलिं च कृत्स्नम् आदाय द्वारि तिष्ठन्ति वारिताः ॥
शकास् तुखाराः कङ्काश् च रोमशाः शृङ्गिणो नराः ॥
महागमान् दूरगमान् गणितान् अर्बुदं हयान् ॥
कोटिशश् चैव बहुशः सुवर्णं पद्मसंमितम् ॥
बलिम् आदाय विविधं द्वारि तिष्ठन्ति वारिताः ॥
niśitāṃś caiva dīrghāsīn ṛṣṭiśaktiparaśvadhān ||
aparāntasamudbhūtāṃs tathaiva paraśūñ śitān ||
rasān gandhāṃś ca vividhān ratnāni ca sahasraśaḥ ||
baliṃ ca kṛtsnam ādāya dvāri tiṣṭhanti vāritāḥ ||
śakās tukhārāḥ kaṅkāś ca romaśāḥ śṛṅgiṇo narāḥ ||
mahāgamān dūragamān gaṇitān arbudaṃ hayān ||
koṭiśaś caiva bahuśaḥ suvarṇaṃ padmasaṃmitam ||
balim ādāya vividhaṃ dvāri tiṣṭhanti vāritāḥ ||
“Sharp long swords, lances, javelins, axes produced in Aparanta, and honed hatchets; various juices and perfumes, and jewels by the thousand — having taken all the tribute, they stand at the gate, until admitted. Shakas, Tukharas, Kankas, hairy horned men, having brought far-ranging horses counted in an arbuda, and gold, koti upon koti, measured by the padma, having taken various tribute, stand at the gate, until admitted.”
c878ed49e1e0 · published Jul 16, 2026, 3:49:22 PM UTC
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The numbers swell to the unimaginable — horses by the ‘arbuda,’ gold ‘koti upon koti,’ measured by the padma. It is telling that these gigantic figures, in the mouth of the envious man, do not praise the givers but chafe the wound: every mass of another's wealth is, for him, a mass of torment. The verse teaches that the magnitude of a good does not gladden one who sees in it nothing of his own: the more that is brought to Yudhishthira, the more deeply it burns Duryodhana. But to an unprejudiced eye, this abundance is a sign of how widely the righteous king is acknowledged. The very same number is, for the grateful, praise, and for the envious, poison; for it is not the things that poison, but the eye that beholds them.