Shloka 63

धृष्टद्युम्नस्य द्रोणाभिमुख्यं तथा सात्यकि-कर्ण-समागमः

Dhṛṣṭadyumna’s advance toward Droṇa and the Sātyaki–Karṇa confrontation

Devanagari script

चेष्टमानं प्रतीघाते सभुजं मां सचक्षुष:,मेरी बाँहें मौजूद हैं और मैं अपने ऊपर किये गये आघातका बदला लेनेकी निरन्तर चेष्टा करता आया हूँ तो भी तुमलोग आँख रहते हुए भी यदि मुझे मरा हुआ मान लेते हो, तो यह तुम्हारी बुद्धिकी मन्दताका परिचायक है। कुरुश्रेष्ठ वीरो! मैंने तो भूरिश्रवाका वध करके बदला चुकाया है, जो सर्वथा उचित है

Transliteration

ceṣṭamānaṁ pratīghāte sabhujaṁ māṁ sacakṣuḥ, merī bāṁheṁ maujūd haiṁ aura maiṁ apane ūpara kiye gaye āghāta kā badalā lene kī nirantara ceṣṭā karatā āyā hūṁ to bhī tumalog āṁkha rahate hue bhī yadi mujhe marā huā māna lete ho, to yaha tumhārī buddhikī mandatā kā paricāyaka hai. kuruśreṣṭha vīro! maiṁne to bhūriśravā kā vadha karake badalā cukāyā hai, jo sarvathā ucita hai

Translation

Sañjaya said: “My arms are still with me, and I have continually striven to repay the blow dealt to me. Yet if you, though having eyes, still regard me as one already slain, that only reveals the dullness of your understanding. O foremost heroes of the Kurus! I have indeed discharged my vengeance by killing Bhūriśravas—and that, in my view, was wholly proper.”

Word by Word

• [{'term': 'ceṣṭamānam', 'definition': 'striving, exerting oneself

• making effort'}, {'term': 'pratīghāte', 'definition': 'in retaliation

• in counter-blow/repayment of an injury'}, {'term': 'sabhujaṁ', 'definition': 'with arms intact

• not deprived of one’s arms'}, {'term': 'sacakṣuḥ', 'definition': 'having eyes

• seeing (yet failing to understand)'}, {'term': 'āghāta', 'definition': 'a blow, strike, injury'}, {'term': 'badalā (pratikāra-bhāva)', 'definition': 'revenge/repayment (sense of retaliation expressed in the passage)'}, {'term': 'buddhi-mandatā', 'definition': 'dullness of intellect

• lack of discernment'}, {'term': 'kuruśreṣṭha', 'definition': 'best among the Kurus

• an honorific address'}, {'term': 'bhūriśravā', 'definition': 'Bhūriśravas (a Kuru warrior)'}, {'term': 'vadha', 'definition': 'slaying, killing'}, {'term': 'ucita', 'definition': 'proper, fitting, justified'}]

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Sanjaya
• Kurus
• Bhūriśravas

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The passage frames retaliation as a claim to restored honor: the speaker argues that being alive and capable, he has repaid an injury through the killing of Bhūriśravas, presenting this as ‘proper.’ It highlights the Mahābhārata’s recurring tension between personal vengeance and ethical justification in war.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sanjaya reports a warrior’s defiant assertion: despite having suffered an attack, he is not ‘as good as dead’—his arms remain, he has kept striving to answer the injury, and he declares that he has already settled the score by slaying Bhūriśravas.