कदलीदण्डसदृशं सर्वलक्षणपूजितम् ॥
गजहस्तप्रतीकाशं वज्रप्रतिमगौरवम् ॥
अभ्युत्स्मयित्वा राधेयं भीमम् आधर्षयन्न् इव ॥
द्रौपद्याः प्रेक्षमाणायाः सव्यम् ऊरुम् अदर्शयत् ॥
वृकोदरस् तद् आलोक्य नेत्रे उत्फाल्य लोहिते ॥
प्रोवाच राजमध्ये तं सभां विश्रावयन्न् इव ॥
पितृभिः सह सालोक्यं मा स्म गच्छेद् वृकोदरः ॥
यद्य् एतम् ऊरुं गदया न भिन्द्यां ते महाहवे ॥
kadalīdaṇḍasadṛśaṃ sarvalakṣaṇapūjitam ||
gajahastapratīkāśaṃ vajrapratimagauravam ||
abhyutsmayitvā rādheyaṃ bhīmam ādharṣayann iva ||
draupadyāḥ prekṣamāṇāyāḥ savyam ūrum adarśayat ||
vṛkodaras tad ālokya netre utphālya lohite ||
provāca rājamadhye taṃ sabhāṃ viśrāvayann iva ||
pitṛbhiḥ saha sālokyaṃ mā sma gacched vṛkodaraḥ ||
yady etam ūruṃ gadayā na bhindyāṃ te mahāhave ||
His left thigh — like the trunk of a plantain tree, marked with every auspicious sign, resembling an elephant's trunk, heavy as a thunderbolt — he, smirking at the son of Radha and as if insulting Bhima, bared before the watching Draupadi. Seeing this, Vrikodara, his bloodshot eyes bulging, spoke amid the kings, as if proclaiming it to the whole assembly: "May Vrikodara never reach the common abode with his forefathers, if in the great battle I do not shatter that thigh of yours with my mace!"
96e210f7040e · published Jul 16, 2026, 4:12:36 PM UTC
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The baring of the thigh is the last and most shameless gesture of outrage, a bodily insult to a chaste woman; and it is answered not with words but with a vow that seals the coming punishment. Bhima swears by what is dearest to him — the common abode with his ancestors, that is, the posthumous bliss of his lineage: only thus is the gravity of what was done measured. Here the audacity of evil reaches the limit beyond which irrevocable retribution is born: Duryodhana's own gesture has marked out the place of his own death. The verse teaches that shamelessness, imagining itself triumphant, in fact signs its own sentence; and that a vow taken for a violated purity is already the first movement of a justice which, in its hour, will surely overtake the one who trampled it.