Shloka 19

सेनापति-निर्णयः तथा पाण्डवसेनायाः कुरुक्षेत्रगमनम्

Decision on Command and the Pandavas’ March to Kurukshetra

Devanagari script

निर्याताश्न विनाशाय कुरुक्षेत्र नराधिपा: । एतत्‌ ते कथितं राजन्‌ यद्‌ वृत्तं कुरुसंसदि

Transliteration

niryātāś ca vināśāya kurukṣetraṁ narādhipāḥ | etat te kathitaṁ rājan yad vṛttaṁ kurusaṁsadi ||

Translation

أيها الملك، لقد خرج الملوك بالفعل إلى كوروكشيترا، سائرين إلى هلاكهم بأيديهم. وأيها الراجَن، لقد قصصتُ عليك الآن الخبر كلَّه عمّا جرى في مجلس الكورو—كيف تتابعت الوقائع هناك حتى أفضت إلى هذه المسيرة المشؤومة نحو الحرب.

Word by Word

• {'niryātāḥ': 'have departed

• have set out', 'ca': 'and', 'vināśāya': 'for destruction

• toward ruin', 'kurukṣetram': 'Kurukṣetra (the field of the Kurus

• the war-ground)', 'narādhipāḥ': 'kings

• lords of men', 'etat': 'this', 'te': 'to you

• for you', 'kathitam': 'told

• narrated', 'rājan': 'O king (vocative)', 'yat': 'which

• that which', 'vṛttam': 'what happened

• the account', 'kurusaṁsadi': 'in the Kuru assembly

Speaker

वायुदेव उवाच

Characters & Entities

• वायुदेव (Vāyudeva)
• राजन् (the king addressed)
• कुरुक्षेत्र (Kurukṣetra)
• कुरुसंसद् (Kuru assembly/court)
• नराधिपाः (kings/rulers)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

When rulers abandon restraint and righteousness, their political decisions can become a march toward self-destruction; the verse frames the journey to Kurukṣetra as the karmic consequence of what occurred in the Kuru assembly.

What is happening in the narrative?

Vāyudeva informs the king that the kings have already departed for Kurukṣetra and states that he has finished recounting the full sequence of events that took place in the Kuru court, which precipitated the coming conflict.