Shloka 47
द्वैपायनह्रदे दुर्योधनान्वेषणम् / The Search for Duryodhana at Dvaipāyana Lake
तस्मै तदहमाचक्षे सर्व प्रत्यक्षदर्शिवान् । भ्रातृश्न निहतान् सर्वान् सैन्यं च विनिपातितम्
tasmai tad aham ācakṣe sarvaṃ pratyakṣadarśivān | bhrātṝn nihitān sarvān sainyaṃ ca vinipātitam ||
Sañjaya said: “Therefore I reported to him everything exactly as I had witnessed it with my own eyes: ‘O king, all your brothers have been slain, and the entire army has been laid low.’”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse foregrounds ethical speech in crisis: Sañjaya, as an eyewitness (pratyakṣadarśivān), reports the truth without embellishment. In the Mahābhārata’s moral universe, truthful testimony—however painful—serves dharma by preventing self-deception and forcing a reckoning with the consequences of adharma and war.
After the catastrophic outcome of the Kurukṣetra war, Sañjaya informs the blind king Dhṛtarāṣṭra of what has occurred: the king’s kin have been killed and the army destroyed. The line functions as a stark, factual announcement that intensifies the king’s grief and marks the irreversible collapse of his side.