नारायणं नमस्कृत्य नरं चैव नरोत्तमम्।देवीं सरस्वतीं व्यासं ततो जयमुदीरयेत्॥
अस्मिन् श्लोके कोऽपि शब्दः प्रथमविभक्यां नास्ति। तस्य अर्थः अस्ति – श्लोकस्य कर्ता (subject) परोक्षः (hidden or implied) अस्ति। द्वितीयविभक्त्यां बहवः शब्दाः सन्ति – नारायणम् नरम् नरोत्तमम् देवीम् सरस्वतीम् व्यासम्। तानि सर्वाणि श्लोकस्य कर्माणि (objects) सन्ति। (A normal sentence structure is that the subject does something to the object. Having identified an implied subject and several objects, next we see what is it that the subject does to the objects.) उदीरयेत् – उदीर् (glorify) धातवः विधिलिङ्गः प्रथमपुरुषः एकवचनः रूपः अस्ति। उदीर् धातुः विलियम्सशब्दकोषे भ्वादिगणिय-आत्मनेपदी इति दत्तम् किन्तु अत्र अहं मन्ये उदीर् धातुः परस्मैपदी अस्ति। एषः श्लोकः परोक्षं कर्तां उदीर्-कुर्यात् इति कथयति। आम्, (yes) उदीर्-कुर्यात् किन्तु प्रथमं तु नमः (नमस्कृत्य) ततः जयम् (Mahabharata) उदीरयेत्। मम मत्यानुसारः अस्य श्लोकस्य अर्थः अस्ति -
Oh! reader or listener (implied), first bow down to Narayan, Nara, the best of men, goddess Sarasvati, and Vyas, and then glorify Mahabharata.
२००६-०१-०९ शुक्रवासरः (2006-06-09 Friday)
June 15, 2006 at 3:28 am
This is a great idea. So much more interesting that studying grammar!
What Sanskrit text are you using? It doesn’t make sense for Vyaasa to ask us to bow to him so I did some searching and in the version I just found, the word is “chaiva” instead of “vyaasam”. This text has problems of it’s own – all the “d’s” are replaced with “th’s”. But it may be good to consult a variety of sources for this endevor.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/mbs/mbs01001.htm
June 15, 2006 at 12:08 pm
गीताप्रेस-प्रकाशितं महाभारतं मया सकाशे अस्ति| अहं तस्मात् अयं श्लोकः गृहीतवान्| मया सकाशे स्वाध्यायमण्डल-प्रकाशितम् अपि अस्ति सायंकाले तस्मिन् प्रकाशने अपि द्रक्ष्यामि|
भावान् सम्यक् वदति, व्यासः स्वयं कथं पाठकान् कथयति मां नमस्कुरु इति| किन्तु अहं मन्ये व्यासात् परं तस्य नाम तस्य शिष्याः महाभारते समाविशन्|
धन्यवादः
हिमांशुः|
August 15, 2009 at 6:04 pm
महामुनिना व्यासेन भगवद्गीतायां दशमे अध्याये “मुनीनां अप्यहं व्यासः” एवंविधः स्वकीयः उल्लेखः कृतः दृश्यते । अतः अस्मिन् “नारायणं नमस्कृत्य…”-श्लोकेऽपि व्यासस्य स्वकीयः उल्लेखः अनुचितः न मन्तव्यः ।
June 16, 2006 at 4:28 pm
ह्यः मया स्वाध्याय-मण्डलेन प्रकाशितं महाभारतम् दृष्टम्, तत्र व्यासं नास्ति किन्तु चैव इति अस्ति| भावन् सम्यग् लिखति|
हिमांशुः|
June 6, 2008 at 7:05 pm
the shloka is not the very first shloka..the shloka is mangalacharana of suta puranika..the first shloka(which is not available in any book published now) is given in MBTatparya nirnaya of sri madhwacharya
June 6, 2008 at 11:46 pm
चन्दनवर्य,
कृपया आदिश्लोकं अस्मान् सूचयतु।
धन्यवादः|
हिमांशुः
August 15, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Narration of Mahabharat seems to have followed the following sequence -
(1) Mahamuni VyAsa dictated it to Lord Ganesh
(2) VaishampAyan, shishya of Muni VyAsa learnt it from Muni VyAsa himself
(3) Muni Vyasa and VaishampAyan arrived at sarpa-yajnya of RAjA Janmejaya. There at the request of Janmejaya, Muni VyAsa ordained VaishampAyan to narrate it to the audience.
(4) Souti was a present in the audience
(5) When Souti went to Ashrama of Muni Shounaka, he mentioned about the privilege of having listened to Mahabharata rendered by VaishampAyan
(6) Muni Shounaka and all the residents of NimiShAraNya requested Souti to narrate it to them (as best as he could)
So, what MahAbhArat we have today is what Souti narrated to Muni Shounak and others in NimiShAraNya. It is hence logical that the MangalAcharaNa shloka has mention of MahAmuni KriShNadwaipAyan satyavatI-suta Veda-VyAsa pArAshara.
The epilogue of MahAbhArata also concludes with “Soutih uvAcha”. The last shloka narrates the benefits or Phalashruti of listening to this epic. It reads
यो गोशतं कनकशृंगमयं ददाति ।
विप्राय वेदविदुषे सुबहुशृताय ।
पुण्यां च भारतकथां सततं शृणोति ।
तुल्यं फलं भवति तस्य च तस्य चैव ॥
It means – “one who offers one hundred cows, having gold-guilt horns to a learned, sage adept at the knowledge of VedAs and one who always listens to this sacred BhArata-kathA, both avail of appropriate benefits.”
(7) There is no mention of who noted down what all was narrated by Souti in NimiSharaNya. Is it not possible that MahAmuni VyAsa might have himself given it the colours of so many editions and renditions of his original composition?
(8) But maybe, not. As the last shloka suggests, so-called “Brahmin”s or “Vipra”s (as referred to in this shloka) seem to have always made smart (?) provisions for getting offerings from the listeners, when they wrote down the scriptures and passed them on from generation to generation. Sort of “Copyright” royalties?
(9) I always feel appalled whenever I find such mentions. Main advice of Geetaa is to do self-less “Karma”. And here we have mentions suggesting, “If you do so, you will get such and such benefit.”
September 12, 2008 at 1:19 am
Please inform me the last Sloka of Mahabharata.
April 8, 2009 at 10:57 am
Divya,
I actually contacted the people at sacredtexts.com to ask about the त,द problem (and many others). They said it was simply a case of your browser and unicode font not being up to date.
I couldn’t figure out how to fix it, so have resorted to manually doing it while reading it.
April 24, 2009 at 3:12 pm
सुप्रभातम् हिमांशुवर्य !
“BORI’s Critical Edition of Mahabharata”इत्यस्यानुसारे महाभारतस्य आदिश्लोकोऽस्ति- “लोमहर्षणपुत्र उग्रश्रवाः सूतःपौराणिको । नैमिषारण्ये शौनकस्य कुलपतेर्द्वादशवार्षिके सत्रे ॥” – (आदिपर्व>अनुक्रमणीपर्व>प्रथमोऽध्यायः>श्लोक#1)
साभार :- http://sanskrit.jnu.ac.in/mb/index.jsp