Shloka 44
शल्यपर्व — चतुर्विंशोऽध्यायः | Śalya Parva, Chapter 24: Disruption of Kaurava Formations and the Elephant Encirclement
उक्त हि बहुश: सिद्धैर्जातमात्रे सुयोधने । एन॑ प्राप्य दुरात्मान॑ क्षयं क्षत्रं गमिष्यति,“दुर्योधनके जन्म लेते ही सिद्ध पुरुषोंने बारंबार कहा था कि “इस दुरात्माको पाकर क्षत्रियजातिका विनाश हो जायगा”
uktaṃ hi bahuśaḥ siddhair jātamātre suyodhane | enaṃ prāpya durātmānaṃ kṣayaṃ kṣatraṃ gamiṣyati ||
“Indeed, the perfected sages declared again and again at the very moment Suyodhana was born: ‘With the coming of this wicked man, the Kṣatriya order will go to destruction.’”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
A leader’s inner character is not private: when a wicked, adharma-driven person gains power and acceptance, the harm spreads outward and can destroy an entire social order (here, the Kṣatriyas). The verse stresses moral causality—personal vice in rulership becomes collective catastrophe.
Sañjaya recalls an earlier warning: at Duryodhana’s birth, siddhas repeatedly foretold that his presence would lead to the ruin of the Kṣatriya class. This retrospective prophecy underscores that the war’s devastation was long anticipated due to Duryodhana’s nature.