Shloka 34
तमद्य मूलं कलहस्य संख्ये दुर्योधनापाश्रयजातदर्पम् त्वामद्य हन्तास्मि रणे प्रसहय अस्यैव हन्ता युधि भीमसेन:
tam adya mūlaṁ kalahasy saṅkhye duryodhanāpāśrayajātadarpaṁ tvām adya hantāsmi raṇe prasahya asyaiva hantā yudhi bhīmasenaḥ
“Today, on this battlefield, I shall forcibly slay you—the very root of this quarrel—whose arrogance has arisen from taking refuge in Duryodhana. Indeed, it is Bhīmasena himself who will be the slayer of this man in war.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames the war’s moral logic as cause and consequence: arrogance born of wrongful support and power (duryodhanāpāśrayajātadarpa) becomes the seed of destruction, and the ‘root of the quarrel’ is destined to be cut down. It highlights how adharma-driven pride invites inevitable retribution in the ethical order of the epic.
Sañjaya reports a battlefield declaration that the person addressed—described as the chief cause of the conflict and emboldened by reliance on Duryodhana—will be slain in combat. The statement also asserts that Bhīmasena is the destined slayer of that man in war, foreshadowing/affirming Bhīma’s role in Duryodhana’s death.