Shloka 45
कर्णेन युधिष्ठिरानीकविदारणम् / Karṇa’s Breach of Yudhiṣṭhira’s Battle-Line
इतिहासयजुर्वेदौ पृष्ठरक्षौ बभूवतु: । दिव्या वाचश्न विद्याश्न परिपार्श्वचरा: स्थिता:,इतिहास और यजुर्वेद पृष्ठरक्षक हो गये तथा दिव्य वाणी और विद्याएँ पार्श्ववर्ती बनकर खड़ी हो गयीं
itihāsa-yajurvedau pṛṣṭha-rakṣau babhūvatuḥ | divyā vācaś ca vidyāś ca paripārśvacarāḥ sthitāḥ ||
Duryodhana said: “The Itihāsa tradition and the Yajurveda stood as protectors at the rear, while the divine utterance and the sacred sciences took their places at the flanks.”
दुर्योधन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how sacred learning—Itihāsa, Veda, divine speech, and the sciences—can be rhetorically marshalled as protective forces. Ethically, it invites reflection on the tension between invoking holy knowledge and engaging in adharma-driven violence: learning may be used to sanctify power, but it does not automatically confer righteousness.
Duryodhana describes a formation or protective arrangement in which revered bodies of knowledge are imagined as guards: Itihāsa and the Yajurveda at the rear, and divine speech and the vidyās at the sides. The statement functions as a grand, sacralizing description of martial readiness and authority.