दुर्योधन उवाच
अहं दातास्मि रत्नानां धनानां च विशां पते ॥
मदर्थे देविता चायं शकुनिर् मातुलो मम ॥
युधिष्ठिर उवाच
अन्येनान्यस्य विषमं देवनं प्रतिभाति मे ॥
एतद् विद्वन्न् उपादत्स्व कामम् एवं प्रवर्तताम् ॥
duryodhana uvāca
ahaṃ dātāsmi ratnānāṃ dhanānāṃ ca viśāṃ pate ||
madarthe devitā cāyaṃ śakunir mātulo mama ||
yudhiṣṭhira uvāca
anyenānyasya viṣamaṃ devanaṃ pratibhāti me ||
etad vidvann upādatsva kāmam evaṃ pravartatām ||
[Duryodhana:] "I am the giver of jewels and wealth, O lord of the people; and playing for me is this Shakuni, my maternal uncle." [Yudhishthira:] "A game of one man through another seems to me unequal [unfitting]; but, knowing this, accept it nonetheless — let it proceed as you wish."
4b3b51fdfea1 · published Jul 16, 2026, 4:03:36 PM UTC
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The very agreement is already crooked: Duryodhana stakes, but Shakuni plays — the opponent splits into the rich man and the skilled man. It is telling that Yudhishthira notices the incongruity at once: "one through another — unequal." The verse teaches vigilance toward wrongness in the very arrangement of a matter: where the condition is skewed from the start, the outcome is already dishonestly decided. But the righteous man, having pointed out the flaw, does not make it a pretext to withdraw — "knowing this, accept it": he does not seek a loophole even in a legitimate objection. In this lies both his nobility and his defenselessness: he plays honestly where a conspiracy of another's gold and another's skill has already been arrayed against him.