Mahabharata 9.31.53 — Shalya Parva, Adhyaya 31, Shloka 53
गदायुद्धप्रतिज्ञा — The Vow and Terms of the Mace Duel
तथाप्येन॑ ह्वतं युद्धे लोका द्रक्ष्यन्ति माधव । “माधव! यद्यपि यह छल-कपटकी विद्यामें बड़ा चतुर है
tathāpy enaṁ hṛtaṁ yuddhe lokā drakṣyanti mādhava | “mādhava! yadyapi ayaṁ chala-kapaṭa-vidyāyāṁ baḍā caturaḥ, tathāpi kapaṭaṁ kṛtvā mama hastād jīvitaṁ na mucyate | yadi samarāṅgaṇe sākṣād vajradhārī indraḥ asya sahāyaḥ syāt, tathāpi yuddhe enaṁ sarve lokā mṛtam eva drakṣyanti” | gaccha tvaṁ bhuṅkṣva rājendra pṛthivīṁ nihatēśvarām | hata-yodhāṁ naṣṭa-ratnāṁ kṣīṇa-vṛttyā yathā-sukham ||
Sañjaya said: “Even so, O Mādhava, people will see him struck down in battle. ‘Mādhava! Though he is exceedingly clever in the arts of deceit and trickery, he will not escape alive from my hands by resorting to fraud. Even if Indra himself, the wielder of the thunderbolt, were to aid him on the battlefield, still all men will behold him slain in war.’ ‘Go then, O king; enjoy the earth whose lord has been destroyed—its warriors slain and its treasures lost—according to your diminished means, as best you can.’”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse contrasts reliance on deceit with the inevitability of moral and martial consequence: cleverness in trickery cannot ultimately avert the results of one’s actions in a dharmic war. It also underscores the grim ethical reality of kingship after devastation—rule becomes the management of loss, not triumph.
Sañjaya reports a warrior’s fierce declaration to Kṛṣṇa (Mādhava): even if the opponent is skilled in deception and even if Indra helps him, he will still be seen slain. The speech then turns to the aftermath of war, telling a king to go and ‘enjoy’ (i.e., rule) an earth left masterless, with warriors dead and treasures destroyed, living within reduced means.
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