Shloka 30

उपायधर्म-सेनायोगः

Upāya-dharma and Senāyoga: Expedient Ethics & Army Deployment

Devanagari script

अनीकं ये विभिन्‍न्दन्ति भिन्न संस्थापयन्ति च । समानाशनपानास्ते कार्या: द्विगुणवेतना:

Transliteration

anīkaṃ ye vibhinndanti bhinnaṃ saṃsthāpayanti ca | samānāśanapānās te kāryā dvi-guṇa-vetanāḥ ||

Translation

Bhishma said: Those who can break the enemy’s battle-array and, when one’s own forces have been scattered, can reorganize and firmly re-establish them—such men should be honored by the king with the same provisions of food and drink as himself, and they should be employed on double pay. The ethical point is that exceptional courage and the capacity to restore order in crisis are public goods in war and deserve tangible recognition, not mere praise.

Word by Word

• {'anīkam': 'battle-array

• military front', 'ye': 'those who', 'vibhinndanti (vibhindanti)': 'split, pierce, break apart (especially an enemy formation)', 'bhinnaṃ': 'broken, scattered, disordered', 'saṃsthāpayanti': 'set in place again

• reorganize', 'ca': 'and', 'samāna-āśana-pānāḥ': 'having equal food and drink (i.e., granted the same rations/privileges as the king)', 'te': 'they

• those men', 'kāryāḥ': 'should be appointed/engaged

• should be made to serve (in office/service)', 'dvi-guṇa-vetanāḥ': 'with double wages

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhishma
• king (rājā, implied)
• enemy army (śatru-senā, implied)
• one's own army (sva-senā, implied)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

A king should materially reward and honor those rare commanders or warriors who can both shatter the enemy’s formation and restore one’s own scattered troops; such crisis-leadership merits equal privileges and double wages.

What is happening in the narrative?

In Bhishma’s instruction on rāja-dharma, he advises Yudhishthira on how to manage and incentivize capable military personnel—specifically those who can break enemy ranks and re-form disordered friendly forces.