Shloka 19

Devanagari script

शेतेअस्माभिननिहता शत्रुसेना छिन्नैगत्रिर्भूमितले नदन्ती । त्वया हि तत्‌ कर्म कृतं नृशंसं यस्माद्‌ दोष:कौरवाणां वधश्न,हमारे द्वारा मारी गयी शत्रुओंकी सेना अपने कटे हुए अंगोंके साथ पृथ्वीपर पड़ी-पड़ी कराह रही है। तूने वह क्रूरतापूर्ण कर्म कर डाला है, जिससे पाप तो होगा ही; कौरववंशका विनाश भी हो जायगा

Transliteration

arjuna uvāca | śete ’smābhir nihataḥ śatrusenā chinnāṅgair bhūmītale nadantī | tvayā hi tat karma kṛtaṃ nṛśaṃsaṃ yasmād doṣaḥ kauravāṇāṃ vadhaś ca ||

Translation

Arjuna said: “The enemy host, slain by us, lies on the ground with severed limbs, groaning in agony. Yet it is you who have brought about that merciless deed—by which sin will surely accrue, and the destruction of the Kauravas will also come to pass.”

Word by Word

• {'śete': 'lies (on the ground), is prostrate', 'asmābhiḥ': 'by us', 'nihataḥ / nihatā': 'slain, killed', 'śatru-senā': 'enemy army/host', 'chinna-aṅgaiḥ': 'with severed limbs', 'bhūmi-tale': 'on the surface of the earth, on the ground', 'nadantī': 'groaning, wailing, lamenting', 'tvayā': 'by you', 'hi': 'indeed, surely', 'tat': 'that (act/deed)', 'karma': 'deed, action (with moral consequence)', 'kṛtam': 'done, performed', 'nṛśaṃsam': 'cruel, pitiless, inhuman', 'yasmāt': 'because, from which', 'doṣaḥ': 'fault, sin, moral taint', 'kauravāṇām': 'of the Kauravas', 'vadhaḥ': 'slaying, destruction'}

Speaker

अजुन उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Arjuna
• Kauravas
• enemy army (śatrusenā)
• earth/ground (bhūmitala)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Even in a righteous war, actions have moral weight: cruelty (nṛśaṃsatā) stains the doer with doṣa (ethical fault). The verse frames battlefield success alongside accountability, warning that pitiless conduct invites sin and accelerates catastrophic outcomes (the Kauravas’ destruction).

What is happening in the narrative?

Arjuna describes the battlefield aftermath—enemy soldiers lying mutilated and groaning—and addresses the interlocutor as responsible for a particularly cruel act. He links that act to inevitable moral blame and to the broader doom of the Kaurava side.