நதீஜலம் கேசவநாரி கேது: நகாஹ்வயோ நாம நகாரிஷூநு: |
ஏஷாங்கநா வேஷதர: கிரீடி ஜித்வா வயம் நேஷ்யதி சாத்ய காவ: ||
It's one of the slokas Maharshi Ved Vyas did it in most complicated way. Why he chose to have such a complicated slokas in the whole gamut of nearly one lakh slokas in the stupendous treatise, viz., Maha Bharata. There's an interesting prelude to it
When Ved Vyas set out to write Maha Bharat, - all slokas were his conception but he chose Maha Ganapati to write them out -, Maharshi made a condition. That Maha Ganapati has to keep up with the flow and pace of Maharshi. What happened was totally reverse. Maharshi couldn't keep up to the speed of Maha Ganapati. So Maharshi made yet another stipulation that not only should Maha Ganapati write it fast but also Ganapati should grasp the sloka while writing it. Such a sport Maha Ganapati became and accepted the challenge.
The Maharshi so as to have a breathing space after dictating every thousand slokas, he deliberately ended the 1000th verse so cumbersome. One can't read it verbatim to get the meaning word by word of the sloka. It's like a jigsaw puzzle. The words have to be rearranged to get to the correct meaning of the sloka. It would take sometime to understand even for such a genius, Maha Ganapati. In the interregnum, Maharshi could relax before he proceeded again.
The sloka in the beginning is from the canto, viz., Virata Parva in Mahabharata. The backdrop is the Pandavas were to observe one year incognito in the fourteen years of exile. They sought refuge in Virata kingdom in different avatars not revealing their real identity. To cut it short, Duryodhana did all tricks and engaged spies to find out Pandavas and expose them. The condition to return the usurped kingdom back to Pandavas was they should not fail during the one year to remain incognito. Coveatus Duryodhana entertained notions defeat Pandavas in this excercise of remaining incognito. When Duryodhana 's tricks failed to fetch any yield, he resorted to wage war against Virata Kingdom. Duryodhana thought that Pandavas would venture out to defend fragile Vrat in the battle. Hence their identities could easily be exposed. Arjuna donning a female role by name Bruhannalai and as a chauffeur took to driving the Ratha from which the Prince of Vrat would fight. At the battlefield, as was expected by Duryodhana, the Prince got scared seeing the mighty army of Duryodhana and instructed the chauffeur to retreat. But valour of Arjun didn't go with the Prince. He advised and motivated the Prince to bravely fight out and defeat Duryodhana.
Maha Swami narrates this under the sub-title பாரதக் குட்டு, chapter kavi சாதுர்யம் in தெய்வத்தின் குரல் vol 3.
Balakumaran wrote this Virata Parva as a story under the title, தனிமைத் தவம்.
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