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Bhagavad-Gītā with Śaṅkara's bhāṣya · 2.2
kutas tvā kaśmalam idaṃ viṣame samupasthitam | anārya-juṣṭam asvargyam akīrti-karam arjuna
Translation. Whence has this defilement (kaśmala) come upon you at a crisis—
embraced by the ignoble, not leading to heaven, and causing disgrace, O Arjuna?
Grammar check: 10 words pass / 0 flagged / 0 beyond the checkerPāṇini-verified
Every word's claimed grammar is re-derived with vidyut-prakriya, software implementing Pāṇini's rules. Flags are shown, never hidden; some are the text taking epic or Vedic liberties the classical rules do not generate.
Word by word
| surface | lemma | grammar |
| kutaḥ | kutas | pass |
| tvā | tvad | pass |
| kaśmalam | kaśmala | pass |
| idam | idam | pass |
| viṣame | viṣama | pass |
| samupasthitam | samupasthita | pass |
| anāryajuṣṭam | anāryajuṣṭa | pass |
| asvargyam | asvargya | pass |
| akīrtikaram | akīrtikara | pass |
| arjuna | arjuna | pass |
How the commentary settled it
Where the verse alone is ambiguous, the reading follows Śaṅkara's commentary; the deciding lines are quoted below each decision.
Construe kutaḥ with samupasthitam as an inquiry into the source of what has arisen, and take tvā as the accusative person approached or affected: ‘Whence has … come upon you?’ This rests on grammar and on ‘whence’ at [MW s.v. kutas, 290,2] and ‘approach’ or ‘befall’ at [MW s.v. samupasthā, 1169,3].→ The source construction: ‘Whence has this defilement come upon you?’
gita []
Take idaṃ kaśmalam as the neuter nominative subject and samupasthitam, anāryajuṣṭam, asvargyam, and akīrtikaram as coordinated neuter nominative predicates or attributes referring to it. Their forms are nominative–accusative syncretic, but the clause’s syntax favors nominative agreement.→ Nominative agreement centered on idaṃ kaśmalam.
gita []
Interpret viṣame substantivally as a locative of circumstance, ‘in a difficult situation’ or ‘at a crisis.’ The contextual extension is based on viṣama ‘uneven, rugged’ [MW s.v. viṣama, 996,3].→ The circumstantial sense ‘at a crisis.’
gita []
Parse anārya-juṣṭam as a third-case tatpuruṣa, anāryaiḥ juṣṭam, rather than giving the negation scope over juṣṭa. Thus it means ‘embraced or practiced by the ignoble,’ not syntactically ‘not embraced by noble people.’→ anāryaiḥ juṣṭam, following the printed compound division anārya-juṣṭam.
gita []
Analyze asvargyam as a negative (nañ) tatpuruṣa and render it ‘not leading to heaven,’ following the supplied lexical definition [MW s.v. asvargya, 124,1].→ The consequential sense ‘not leading to heaven.’
gita []
Treat akīrti-karam as one tatpuruṣa adjective with the verbal paraphrase akīrtiṃ karoti, ‘causing disgrace.’ This combines akīrti ‘ill-fame, disgrace’ [MW s.v. akīrti, 2,2] with adjectival kara ‘causing, producing’ [MW s.v. kara, 253,1].→ The compound adjective ‘causing disgrace.’
gita []