dharmārtha-kāma-mokṣāṁś ca sahopāyān yathā mune nānākhyānetihāseṣu varṇayāmāsa tattvavit
Synonyms
dharma—occupational duties; artha—economic development; kāma—fulfilment of desires; mokṣān—ultimately salvation; ca—and Saha—along with; saha—means; upāyān—as it is; yathā—oh the sages; mune—various; nānā—by recitation of historical narrations; ākhyāna—in the histories; itihāseṣu—described; varṇayāmāsa—one who knows the truth.
Translation
Then he described about occupational duties of different orders and status of life from incidences of different historical facts as he was himself well acquainted with the truth.
Purport
Incidences mentioned in the Vedic literatures such as the Puranas, Mahabharata and Ramayana etc. all are factual historical narrations which took place sometimes in the past although not in any chronological order. Such historical facts being instructive for the ordinary men they were assorted without any chronological reference. Besides that such historical facts are incidences of different planets nay different universes and as such the description of the narrations are sometimes are measured by three dimentions. We are simply concerned only with the instructive lessons of such incidences even they are not in order of our limited range of understanding. Bhismadeva described such narrations of different histories before Maharaj Yudhisthir in reply to his different querries.