Shloka 6
अध्याय १ — न्यग्रोधवनोपवेशनम् तथा द्रौणिनिश्चयः
Night at the Banyan and Drauṇi’s Resolve
नामृष्यन्त महेष्वासा: क्रोधामर्षवशं गता: । राज्ञो वधेन संतप्ता मुहूर्त समवस्थिता:
nāmṛṣyanta maheṣvāsāḥ krodhāmarṣavaśaṁ gatāḥ | rājño vadheṇa santaptā muhūrtaṁ samavasthitāḥ ||
Sañjaya said: Unable to endure it, those great archers—overpowered by anger and wounded pride—stood there in silence for a moment, burning with grief at the slaying of their king. The pause was not calm restraint but a tense, smoldering interval in which rage and humiliation gathered force after Duryodhana’s death, foreshadowing the ethical darkness of the retaliatory violence to come.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how krodha (anger) and amarṣa (humiliated pride) can seize even heroic figures, turning grief into a combustible motive for retaliation. It implicitly warns that when sorrow is ruled by ego and rage, it becomes a seedbed for ethically disastrous action.
After their king is slain, the remaining great archers are unable to bear the situation. Overcome by anger and resentment, they stand silently for a muhurta, inwardly burning—an ominous pause that precedes the night-time events of the Sauptika Parva.