Shloka 11
अभिमन्युवधः
Abhimanyu’s Fall and the Battlefield Aftermath
“अरे! तेरा पिता कायरकी भाँति युद्ध छोड़कर भाग गया है। सौभाग्यकी बात है कि तू भी युद्ध करना जानता है; किंतु आज तू जीवित नहीं छूट सकेगा”
are! tava pitā kāyara-vat yuddhaṃ tyaktvā palāyitaḥ. saubhāgyam etat yat tvam api yoddhuṃ jānāsi; kintu adya tvaṃ jīvitaṃ na mokṣyase.
“অ’ৰে! তোৰ পিতাই কাপুৰুষৰ দৰে যুদ্ধ এৰি পলাই গ’ল। ভাগ্য ভাল, তই যুদ্ধ কৰিব জানিস; কিন্তু আজি তই জীৱন্তে ৰেহাই নাপাবি।”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The line highlights the Mahabharata’s war-ethic where martial honor (kshatriya-dharma) is publicly measured by steadfastness in battle. It also shows how moral language—calling someone a ‘coward’—is used as a weapon, raising ethical tension between dharma as ideal conduct and dharma as rhetoric in a lethal conflict.
In the Drona Parva’s ongoing battles, a warrior is being taunted: his father is accused of fleeing the fight, while the son is grudgingly acknowledged as capable. The speaker then issues a death-threat—‘today you will not escape alive’—reflecting the immediate, personal intensity of battlefield exchanges.