Shloka 77
Udyoga-parva Adhyāya 47 — Arjuna’s Deterrent Declaration
Sañjaya’s Report
अयं सम युद्धे मन्यते<न्यैरजेयं तमेकलव्यं नाम निषादराजम् | वेगेनैव शैलमभिहत्य जम्भ: शेते स कृष्णेन हत: परासु:
ayaṁ samyuddhe manyate 'nyair ajeyaṁ tam ekalavyaṁ nāma niṣādarājam | vegenaiva śailam abhihatya jambhaḥ śete sa kṛṣṇena hataḥ parāsuḥ ||
Sañjaya sprach: „Jener Niṣāda-König namens Ekalavya—von anderen im Kampf für unbezwingbar gehalten—wurde vom erhabenen Śrī Kṛṣṇa immer wieder zum Zweikampf herausgefordert. Doch nun liegt er, leblos, von Kṛṣṇa erschlagen, auf dem Schlachtfeld—wie der Dämon Jambha, der kopfüber mit eigener Wucht gegen einen Berg prallte und, des Lebens beraubt, in den Schlaf des Todes sank.“
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
Invincibility is conditional and can collapse through overconfidence or destiny; the verse underscores the inevitability of death in war and the decisive force of Kṛṣṇa’s agency, contrasting human pride with a cautionary example (Jambha) who perishes by his own reckless momentum.
Sañjaya reports that Ekalavya, famed as unconquerable, has been slain by Kṛṣṇa and now lies dead on the battlefield. To intensify the image, he compares Ekalavya’s fall to the demon Jambha, who died after violently crashing into a mountain.