Shloka 23

Devanagari script

तस्मिन्नाकुलसंग्रामे वर्तमाने महाभये

Transliteration

tasminn ākula-saṅgrāme vartamāne mahābhaye

Translation

Sañjaya said: While that bewildering battle was in progress—amidst a great and overwhelming terror—

Word by Word

• तस्मिन्: in that
• तस्मिन्: Adhikarana
• Type: Pronoun
• Root: तद्
• Form: Masculine/Neuter, Locative, Singular

• आकुल-संग्रामे: in the confused/tumultuous battle
• आकुल-संग्रामे: Adhikarana
• Type: Noun
• Root: आकुलसंग्राम
• Form: Masculine, Locative, Singular

• वर्तमाने: while occurring/going on
• वर्तमाने: Adhikarana
• Type: Adjective
• Root: वृत्
• Form: Masculine, Locative, Singular

• महाभये: in great fear/terror
• महाभये: Adhikarana
• Type: Noun
• Root: महाभय
• Form: Neuter, Locative, Singular

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Sañjaya

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The line foregrounds the moral pressure-cooker of war: when events become ākula (confounding) and mahābhaya (pervaded by terror), discernment and dharma are hardest to sustain—setting the stage for judging actions not in calm theory but under extreme crisis.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya, as narrator, marks the scene as an ongoing, chaotic battle filled with great fear, introducing or transitioning into the next event that unfolds within this atmosphere of panic and confusion.