Shloka 40
पितामहं रणे हत्वा मन्यसे धर्ममात्मन: । मया शत्रौ हते कस्मात् पापे धर्म न मन््यसे
pitāmahaṃ raṇe hatvā manyase dharmam ātmanaḥ | mayā śatrau hate kasmāt pāpe dharma na manyase ||
Dhṛṣṭadyumna said: “After slaying the grandsire in battle, you consider yourself to be acting in accordance with dharma. Why then, when I have slain an enemy, do you not regard that same act as dharma, but as sin?”
धष्टहुम्न उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse challenges inconsistent moral judgment in war: if killing a revered elder in battle is justified as dharma under the rules of kṣatriya warfare, then killing an enemy combatant should not be condemned as sin merely due to personal bias or attachment.
Dhṛṣṭadyumna confronts his opponent’s moral stance, pointing out that the speaker accepts the killing of Bhīṣma (the ‘grandsire’) as righteous, yet labels Dhṛṣṭadyumna’s killing of an enemy as sinful—highlighting a dispute over dharma amid the violence of the Kurukṣetra war.