Mahabharata shloka
Madhav Deshpande
mmdesh at umich.edu
Wed Jul 5 20:10:52 UTC 1995
On Thu, 25 May 1995, . wrote:
> Dear Indologists,
>
> I would like to ask a grammar question about
> a shloka from the Mahabharata.
>
> satyasya vacana.m "sreya.h satyAdapi hita.m vadet |
> yadbhUtahitamatya.mtametatsatya.m mata.m mama ||
>
> In the second paada, satya appears in the ablative case.
> Does this mean that "one should speak what is beneficial
> *from* the set of things that are true" or is the ablative
> for comparison as in "one should speak what is beneficial
> rather *than* what is true"?
>
> Thank you for any help you can provide.
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Gary R. Thrapp
> thrapp at nosc.mil
>
>
The phrase "satyaad api hitam vadet" means: "one should rather
speeak something that is beneficial, rather than something that is
true." The second part of the verse then says: "That which is
beneficial is the really true ..."
Madhav Deshpande
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