Shloka 19

Devanagari script

यस्य चैतद्‌ व्रतं महां वधे किल दुरात्मन: । पादौ न धावये तावद्‌ यावद्धन्यां न फाल्गुनम्‌,“मधुसूदन! जिस दुरात्माने मेरे वधके लिये यह व्रत लिया है कि जबतक अर्जुनको मार न लूंगा, तबतक दूसरोंसे पैर न धुलाऊँगा। उस पापीके इस व्रतको मिथ्या करके झुकी हुई गाँठवाले बाणोंद्वारा उसके इस शरीरको रथसे नीचे गिरा दूँगा

Transliteration

yasya caitad vrataṁ mahān vadhe kila durātmanaḥ | pādau na dhāvaye tāvad yāvaddhanyāṁ na phālgunam ||

Translation

Sañjaya said: “That wicked man has, it seems, undertaken this great vow for my slaying: ‘I will not wash my feet until I have killed Phālguna (Arjuna).’ I shall render that sinner’s vow false and, with bent-knot arrows, cast his body down from the chariot.”

Word by Word

• [{'term': 'vratam', 'definition': 'a vow

• a solemn resolve undertaken for a specific aim'}, {'term': 'mahān', 'definition': 'great

• formidable'}, {'term': 'vadhe', 'definition': 'in (the matter of) killing

• for the slaying (locative of purpose/context)'}, {'term': 'durātmanaḥ', 'definition': 'of the wicked-minded one

• of the evil person'}, {'term': 'pādau', 'definition': 'feet (dual)'}, {'term': 'dhāvaye', 'definition': 'I shall wash/cleanse (causative/denominative sense: to have washed)'}, {'term': 'tāvat ... yāvat', 'definition': 'until ... as long as (correlative construction)'}, {'term': 'phālgunam', 'definition': 'Phālguna, i.e., Arjuna'}, {'term': 'dhan(y)ām', 'definition': 'I shall kill/slay (contextual sense

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Sañjaya
• Phālguna (Arjuna)
• chariot
• arrows (bent-knot type, implied by the Hindi gloss)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights how vows (vrata) in war can become instruments of ego and cruelty; a vow aimed at unrighteous killing is portrayed as morally tainted, and the narrative frames its ‘breaking’ as a form of ethical counteraction against adharma.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya reports a warrior’s fierce resolve: an enemy has vowed not to wash his feet until he kills Arjuna (Phālguna). The speaker declares an intention to invalidate that vow by defeating him—described (in the accompanying tradition/gloss) as striking him with special arrows and throwing him down from his chariot.