Adhyāya 197: Pāṇḍava-Senā-Vibhāgaḥ (Organization and Departure of the Pāṇḍava Forces)
Upa-parva: Sainya-Prayāṇa (Pāṇḍava-Senā-Vyūha) Upa-Parva
Vaiśaṃpāyana narrates how King Yudhiṣṭhira (Dharmaputra) initiates the Pāṇḍava departure by urging forward leading warriors headed by Dhṛṣṭadyumna. He appoints Dhṛṣṭaketu as a firm commander for the Cedi–Kāśi–Karūṣa leadership and enumerates prominent allies (Virāṭa, Drupada, Yuyudhāna/Sātyaki, Śikhaṇḍin, and the Pāñcāla heroes Yudhāmanyu and Uttamaujas). The text depicts the army’s brilliance—ornamented, armed, and arrayed—then records the practical bustle of loading baggage and the resonant soundscape of movement. Yudhiṣṭhira dispatches successive force-groupings (including Abhimanyu, the Draupadeyas, Nakula, Sahadeva, and the Prabhadrakas), provides troop figures (horses, elephants, infantry, chariots), and assigns Bhīma a foremost position while placing Virāṭa and Jayatsena in the middle, with Vāsudeva and Arjuna accompanying centrally. The chapter closes with large-scale banners, elephants, chariots, and the ceremonial instruments (bherīs and śaṅkhas) marking a coordinated coalition march aimed at confronting the Dhārtarāṣṭra side under Suyodhana.
No shlokas available for this adhyaya yet.
The implicit tension is between continued diplomatic patience and the duty to protect political order and redress dispossession; mobilization is presented as a regulated, accountable response rather than impulsive aggression.
Effective leadership requires transparent delegation, coherent grouping of resources, and ritualized discipline—showing that large-scale action becomes ethically intelligible when governed by procedure and responsibility.
No explicit phalaśruti appears in the provided verses; the chapter’s meta-function is archival and operational, supplying coalition structure and command assignments that contextualize later events.