Shloka 91
Udyoga-parva Adhyāya 47 — Arjuna’s Deterrent Declaration
Sañjaya’s Report
धर्मेणाप्तं निधनं तस्य मन्ये यो योत्स्यते पाण्डवै: पापबुद्धि: । मिथ्या ग्लहे निर्जिता वै नृशंसै: संवत्सरान् वै द्वादश राजपुत्रा:,“जो पापबुद्धि मानव पाण्डवोंके साथ युद्ध करेगा, धर्मकी दृष्टिसे उसकी मृत्यु निकट आ गयी है, ऐसा मेरा विश्वास है। कारण कि इन क्रूर स्वभाववाले कौरवोंने हम सब लोगोंको कपट्यूतमें जीतकर बारह वर्षोके लिये वनमें निर्वासित कर दिया था; यद्यपि हम भी राजाके ही पुत्र थे
sañjaya uvāca |
dharmeṇāptaṃ nidhanaṃ tasya manye yo yotsyate pāṇḍavaiḥ pāpabuddhiḥ |
mithyāglahе nirjitā vai nṛśaṃsaiḥ saṃvatsarān vai dvādaśa rājaputrāḥ ||
Sañjaya said: “I deem that, by the very law of dharma, death has already been secured for that man of sinful intent who chooses to fight against the Pāṇḍavas. For those ruthless men won the royal princes through a deceitful game of dice and drove them into exile in the forest for twelve years—though they too were sons of the king.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames moral causality: to wage war against the Pandavas after the injustice of the deceitful dice-game is to align oneself with adharma, and such a choice is portrayed as inevitably leading to ruin. Ethical wrongdoing (fraud, cruelty, unjust dispossession) ripens into destructive consequences in the arena of war.
Sanjaya comments on the impending conflict, judging that anyone who fights the Pandavas with wicked intent is already marked for death by dharma’s logic. He recalls the earlier wrong: the Kauravas, through a fraudulent gambling match, defeated the princes and sent them to a twelve-year forest exile despite their royal status.