Shloka 30
Duryodhana-śibira-praveśaḥ — The Pāṇḍavas Enter the Kaurava Camp; The Burning of Arjuna’s Chariot
जिह्नौरुपायैर्बहुभिर्न ते लज्जा न ते घृणा । “सरलतासे धर्मानुकूल युद्ध करनेवाले सहस्रों भूमिपालोंको बहुत-से कुटिल उपायोंद्वारा मरवाकर न तुम्हें लज्जा आती है और न इस बुरे कर्मसे घृणा ही होती है ।। अहन्यहनि शूराणां कुर्वाण: कदनं महत्
jihnair upāyair bahubhir na te lajjā na te ghṛṇā | saralatāse dharmānukūla yuddha karanevāle sahasrāṇāṁ bhūmipālān bahu-śe kuṭila upāyadvārā maravākar na tvaṁ lajjāṁ yāsi na ca asya bure karmasya ghṛṇā bhavati || ahany ahani śūrāṇāṁ kurvāṇaḥ kadanaṁ mahat |
Sanjaya said: “Do you feel neither shame nor revulsion? By many crooked stratagems you have caused thousands of kings—men who fought straightforwardly in accordance with dharma—to be slain; yet you are not ashamed, nor do you recoil from this evil deed. Day after day you continue to inflict great slaughter upon the heroes.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse condemns victory pursued through deceitful stratagems that violate dharma. It frames ethical warfare as requiring straightforward conduct and moral restraint, and it criticizes the absence of shame (lajjā) and moral revulsion (ghṛṇā) when one causes the death of dharma-abiding warriors.
Sañjaya, narrating the war events, delivers a sharp moral rebuke: he points out that many kings who fought in a straightforward, dharma-aligned manner have been destroyed through crooked means, and he highlights the ongoing, day-by-day mass slaughter of heroes.