Shloka 39
Sauptika Parva, Adhyaya 8 — Dhṛṣṭadyumna-vadha and the Camp’s Nocturnal Rout
संसुप्तानेव राजेन्द्र तत्र तत्र महारथान् । स्फुरतो वेपमानांश्व शमितेव पशून् मखे,राजेन्द्र! इस प्रकार युधामन्युका वध करके वीर अअश्वत्थामाने अन्य महारथियोंपर भी वहाँ सोते समय ही आक्रमण किया। वे सब भयसे काँपने और छटपटाने लगे। परंतु जैसे हिंसाप्रधान यज्ञमें वधके लिये नियुक्त हुआ पुरुष पशुओंको मार डालता है, उसी प्रकार उसने भी उन्हें मार डाला
saṃsuptān eva rājendra tatra tatra mahārathān | sphurato vepamānāṃś ca śamitān iva paśūn makhe ||
Sañjaya said: “O king, there and then he fell upon the great chariot-warriors while they were still asleep. They trembled and convulsed in fear; yet he slew them as one appointed in a violent sacrificial rite dispatches the animals. The scene casts the killings not as open combat but as a grim, ritual-like slaughter—ethically darkened by the victims’ helplessness and the absence of fair battle.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores the ethical degradation of violence when it abandons the norms of fair combat: killing sleeping, defenseless warriors is likened to ritual slaughter of animals, highlighting how war can slip from kṣatriya battle into morally troubling butchery.
Sañjaya describes the night attack in which great warriors are struck down while asleep; they tremble and writhe in fear, yet are killed swiftly—compared to animals dispatched in a sacrificial rite.