Shloka 20
Daitya-āśvāsana of Duryodhana; Karṇa’s assurance and the mobilization of the Kaurava host
अन्य पाण्डव भी धर्मपर ही चलनेवाले हैं; अतः वे सब-के-सब युधिष्ठिरका ही अनुसरण करते हैं। कुन्तीनन्दन युधिष्ठिर हमलोगोंपर कदापि क्रोध नहीं करेंगे ।। मृगयां चैव नो गन्तुमिच्छा संवर्तते भृशम् । स्मारणं तु चिकीर्षामो न तु पाण्डवदर्शनम्,हमारी विशेष इच्छा केवल हिंसक पशुओंका शिकार खेलनेकी है। हमलोग वहाँ स्मरणके लिये केवल गौओंकी गणना करना चाहते हैं। पाण्डवोंसे मिलनेकी हमारी इच्छा बिलकुल नहीं है
anye pāṇḍavā api dharmapareṇaiva vartante; ataḥ te sarve yudhiṣṭhiram eva anusaranti. kuntīnandanaḥ yudhiṣṭhiraḥ asmāsu kadācid api krodhaṃ na kariṣyati. mṛgayāṃ caiva no gantum icchā saṃvartate bhṛśam. smāraṇaṃ tu cikīrṣāmo na tu pāṇḍavadarśanam.
Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: “The other Pāṇḍavas too are devoted to dharma; therefore they all follow Yudhiṣṭhira alone. Yudhiṣṭhira, Kuntī’s son, will never become angry with us. Our strong desire is simply to go out for the hunt. We wish only to carry out the ‘counting’ (a pretext of inspection and record-keeping), not to seek an audience with the Pāṇḍavas.”
धृतराष्ट उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights Yudhiṣṭhira’s steadfast commitment to dharma and emotional restraint: even when wronged, he is portrayed as unlikely to respond with anger. It also shows how the other Pāṇḍavas align their conduct with his dharmic leadership.
Dhṛtarāṣṭra frames the Pāṇḍavas as dharma-driven and therefore predictable under Yudhiṣṭhira’s guidance. He then states that the party’s intention is to go hunting and to perform a stated ‘counting/recording’ task, explicitly denying any wish to meet the Pāṇḍavas—suggesting a strategic distancing or pretext rather than open engagement.