Shloka 51
हतबान्धवभूयिष्ठा हताश्वा हतकुञ्जरा । एषा ते पृथिवी राजन् भुड्क्ष्वैनां विगतज्वर:,राजन! यह पृथ्वी, जहाँ मेरे अधिक-से-अधिक भाई-बन्धु, घोड़े और हाथी मारे गये हैं, अब तुम्हारे ही अधिकारमें रहे। तुम निश्चिन््त होकर इसका उपभोग करो
hatabāndhavabhūyiṣṭhā hatāśvā hatakuñjarā | eṣā te pṛthivī rājan bhuṅkṣvaināṃ vigatajvaraḥ ||
Duryodhana said: “O King, this earth—where most of my kinsmen have been slain, and where horses and elephants have been destroyed—now belongs to you. Enjoy it without anxiety, free from feverish care.”
दुर्योधन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the bitter irony of sovereignty gained through mass destruction: the ‘earth’ is offered for enjoyment, yet it is saturated with loss. The phrase vigatajvaraḥ (“free from feverish anxiety”) underscores the ethical tension between outward possession and inner unrest after catastrophic war.
Duryodhana addresses a king (rājan), presenting the realm as now belonging to him, while emphasizing that it has been won at the cost of Duryodhana’s own kinsmen and the annihilation of cavalry and elephants—an image of the battlefield’s devastation and the hollowing of victory.