Shloka 13
Duryodhana-śibira-praveśaḥ — The Pāṇḍavas Enter the Kaurava Camp; The Burning of Arjuna’s Chariot
“अनघ! जैसे सिंहने भैंसेका खून पी लिया हो, उसी प्रकार आपने महान् युद्ध ठानकर दुःशासनके रक्तका पान किया है, यह भी सौभाग्यकी ही बात है ।। ये विप्रकुर्वन् राजानं धर्मात्मानं युधिष्ठिरम् । मूर्थ्नि तेषां कृत: पादो दिष्ट्या ते स्वेन कर्मणा,“जिन लोगोंने धर्मात्मा राजा युधिष्ठिरका अपराध किया था, उन सबके मस्तकपर आपने अपने पराक्रमद्वारा पैर रख दिया, यह कितने हर्षका विषय है
sañjaya uvāca |
anagha! yathā siṃhena mahiṣasya rudhiraṃ pītaṃ syāt tathā tvayā mahad yuddhaṃ niścitya duḥśāsanasya rudhiraṃ pītam; etad api saubhāgyasyaiva kāraṇam ||
ye viprakurvan rājānaṃ dharmātmānaṃ yudhiṣṭhiram |
mūrdhni teṣāṃ kṛtaḥ pādo diṣṭyā te svena karmaṇā ||
Sañjaya said: “O blameless one! Just as a lion might drink the blood of a buffalo, so you—having resolved upon a great battle—have drunk the blood of Duḥśāsana; even this is a matter of fortune. Those who had wronged the righteous king Yudhiṣṭhira—upon the heads of all of them you have set your foot by your own valor; by destiny and by your own deed, this is indeed a cause for joy.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames violent retribution within a dharmic-ethical narrative: wrongdoing against a righteous king brings consequences, and the outcome is seen as both destiny (diṣṭyā) and personal agency (svena karmaṇā). It highlights the Mahābhārata tension between moral order (dharma), justified punishment, and the grim cost of war.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra, praising the warrior who fulfilled a fierce wartime resolve by drinking Duḥśāsana’s blood, likening it to a lion’s act. He says that those who had offended Yudhiṣṭhira have been humbled—symbolically ‘trodden upon’—through the warrior’s valor, presented as a triumphant reversal of earlier humiliation.