Shloka 91
Udyoga-parva Adhyāya 47 — Arjuna’s Deterrent Declaration
Sañjaya’s Report
धर्मेणाप्तं निधनं तस्य मन्ये यो योत्स्यते पाण्डवै: पापबुद्धि: । मिथ्या ग्लहे निर्जिता वै नृशंसै: संवत्सरान् वै द्वादश राजपुत्रा:
sañjaya uvāca |
dharmeṇāptaṃ nidhanaṃ tasya manye yo yotsyate pāṇḍavaiḥ pāpabuddhiḥ |
mithyāglahе nirjitā vai nṛśaṃsaiḥ saṃvatsarān vai dvādaśa rājaputrāḥ ||
Sañjaya sprach: „Ich meine, dass nach dem Gesetz des Dharma der Tod bereits demjenigen gesichert ist, der in sündiger Gesinnung den Kampf gegen die Pāṇḍavas wählt. Denn jene grausamen Männer gewannen die königlichen Prinzen durch ein trügerisches Würfelspiel und trieben sie für zwölf Jahre in die Verbannung in den Wald—obwohl auch sie Söhne des Königs waren.“
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames moral causality: to wage war against the Pandavas after the injustice of the deceitful dice-game is to align oneself with adharma, and such a choice is portrayed as inevitably leading to ruin. Ethical wrongdoing (fraud, cruelty, unjust dispossession) ripens into destructive consequences in the arena of war.
Sanjaya comments on the impending conflict, judging that anyone who fights the Pandavas with wicked intent is already marked for death by dharma’s logic. He recalls the earlier wrong: the Kauravas, through a fraudulent gambling match, defeated the princes and sent them to a twelve-year forest exile despite their royal status.