Shloka 3
अलोलुप: शल: सन्धो वातवेगसुवर्चसौ । एते समेत्य सहिता भ्रातृव्यसनकर्शिता:
alolupaḥ śalaḥ sandho vātavegasuvarcasau | ete sametya sahitā bhrātṛvyasanakarśitāḥ ||
Sanjaya said: Alolupa, Śala, Sandha, and the two—Vātavega and Suvarcas—came together as a single band, driven on and worn down by the calamity their foes had brought upon them. In war’s grim moral air, their gathering shows how enmity and loss compel warriors into alliances and renewed violence.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how hostility and the suffering caused by enemies can force people into solidarity; in the ethical landscape of the Mahābhārata, war breeds both alliances and further cycles of retaliation, reminding the listener that enmity (bhrātṛvya-bhāva) has tangible, corrosive consequences.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra that a group of named warriors—Alolupa, Śala, Sandha, Vātavega, and Suvarcas—have assembled together, described as being afflicted by misfortune brought about through conflict with their foes, indicating a coordinated movement or regrouping amid the ongoing battle events of the Karṇa Parva.