Shloka 26
धृष्टद्युम्नस्य द्रोणाभिमुख्यं तथा सात्यकि-कर्ण-समागमः
Dhṛṣṭadyumna’s advance toward Droṇa and the Sātyaki–Karṇa confrontation
कवचं धुन्वतस्तुभ्यं रथं चारोहत: स्वयम् । धनुर्ज्या कर्षतश्चैव युध्यतः सह शत्रुभि:,तुम स्वयं कवच हिलाते हुए रथपर चढ़े थे, धनुषकी प्रत्यंचा खींचते थे और अपने बहुसंख्यक शत्रुओंके साथ युद्ध कर रहे थे। इस प्रकार रथ, हाथी, घुड़सवार और पैदलोंसे भरे हुए सिंहनादकी भैरव गर्जनासे व्याप्त गम्भीर सैन्य-समुद्रमें जहाँ अपने और शत्रुपक्षके एकत्र हुए लोगोंका परस्पर युद्ध चल रहा था, तुम्हारी सात्यकिके साथ मुठभेड़ हुई थी। ऐसे तुमुल युद्धमें किसी भी एक योद्धाका एक ही योद्धाके साथ संग्राम कैसे माना जा सकता है?
kavacaṁ dhunvatas tubhyaṁ rathaṁ cārohataḥ svayam | dhanurjyāṁ karṣataś caiva yudhyataḥ saha śatrubhiḥ ||
Arjuna said: “You yourself, shaking your armour, mounted your chariot; you drew the bowstring and fought amid the enemy host. In such a tumult—where chariots, elephants, horsemen, and foot-soldiers surged like a deep sea and the clash of gathered forces raged on—how can anyone claim that this was a ‘single combat’ of one warrior with one warrior, as though the battle were isolated from the surrounding mêlée?”
अर्जुन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse challenges a simplistic moral or legal claim about ‘single combat’ by insisting on contextual truth: in a chaotic battlefield filled with many combatants, ethical judgments must account for the surrounding conditions rather than isolating an event as if it occurred in a vacuum.
Arjuna addresses a warrior (the ‘you’ of the verse), recalling how he mounted his chariot, shook his armour, drew his bowstring, and fought amid numerous enemies. Arjuna uses this description to argue that the encounter cannot honestly be described as a one-on-one duel because the wider mêlée was fully engaged.