sańkhyānaḿ yādavānāḿ kaḥ

kariṣyati mahātmanām

yatrāyutānām ayuta-

lakṣeṇāste sa āhukaḥ

sankhyanam -- the counting; yadavanam -- of the Yadavas; kah -- who; karishyati -- can do; maha-atmanam -- of the great personalities; yatra -- among whom; ayutanam -- of tens of thousands; ayuta -- (times) ten thousand; lakshena -- with (three) hundred thousand (persons); aste -- was present; sah -- he; ahukah -- Ugrasena.


Texto

Who can count all the great Yadavas, when among them King Ugrasena alone was accompanied by an entourage of thirty trillion attendants?

Significado

Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti explains why specifically thirty trillion, rather than an indefinite number of tens of trillions, is stated here to be the number of King Ugrasena's attendants. He does so by citing the interpretational rule of kapinjaladhikarana, the logic of "referring to pigeons": Somewhere in the Vedas is found the injunction that "one should sacrifice some pigeons." This plural number should be taken to mean not an indiscriminate number of pigeons, but precisely three of them, since the Vedas never leave any matter vague. The rules of Mimamsa interpretation take three as the default number when no specific number is given.