Shloka 6

Devanagari script

अक्षौहिणी तु सा सेना तदा यौधिष्ठिरं बलम्‌ । प्रविश्यान्तर्दधे राजन्‌ सागरं कुनदी यथा,राजन्‌! वह एक अक्षौहिणी सेना युधिष्ठिरकी विशाल वाहिनीमें समाकर उसी प्रकार विलीन हो गयी, जैसे कोई छोटी नदी समुद्रमें मिल गयी हो

Transliteration

akṣauhiṇī tu sā senā tadā yauḍhiṣṭhiraṃ balam | praviśyāntardadhe rājan sāgaraṃ kunadī yathā ||

Translation

Vaiśaṃpāyana dijo: «Oh Rey, aquella división de tropas, una akṣauhiṇī, al entrar en la inmensa hueste de Yudhiṣṭhira, se perdió en su interior, como un río pequeño que, al llegar al océano, se disuelve en su vastedad.»

Word by Word

अक्षौहिणीan akṣauhiṇī (full army unit)

तुbut/indeed

साthat (she/that one)

सेनाarmy

तदाthen/at that time

यौधिष्ठिरम्belonging to Yudhiṣṭhira (Yudhiṣṭhira’s)

बलम्force/army

प्रविश्यhaving entered

अन्तर्दधेdisappeared/was absorbed

राजन्O king

सागरम्ocean/sea

कुनदीa small/insignificant river

यथाas/just as

Speaker

वैशमग्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

Vaiśaṃpāyana

Yudhiṣṭhira

King (Janamejaya)

akṣauhiṇī

army (senā)

ocean (sāgara)

small river (kunadī)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse uses a moral-psychological image: when a smaller force joins a vastly larger one, its separate identity disappears. In the Udyoga Parva context, it highlights the accumulating momentum toward war and the way individual contingents become part of a larger, consequential enterprise.

What is happening in the narrative?

A single akṣauhiṇī of troops merges into Yudhiṣṭhira’s already great army. The narrator compares this to a small river entering the ocean and being absorbed, emphasizing the scale of the Pāṇḍava host.