Shloka 84

Udyoga-parva Adhyāya 47 — Arjuna’s Deterrent Declaration

Sañjaya’s Report

Devanagari script

तत्रैव तेनास्य बभूव युद्ध महाबलेनातिबलस्य विष्णो: । शेते स कृष्णेन हत: परासु- वतिनेवोन्मथित: कर्णिकार:,“वहीं उस महाबली नरकासुरके साथ अत्यन्त बलशाली भगवान्‌ श्रीकृष्णका युद्ध हुआ। श्रीकृष्णके हाथसे मारा जाकर वह प्राणोंसे हाथ धो बैठा और आँधीके उखाड़े हुए कनेरवृक्षकी भाँति सदाके लिये रणभूमिमें सो गया

Transliteration

tatraiva tenāsya babhūva yuddhaṃ mahābalenātibalasya viṣṇoḥ | śete sa kṛṣṇena hataḥ parāsu-vātinevonmathitaḥ karṇikāraḥ ||

Translation

Sañjaya dit : Là même, Viṣṇu—d’une puissance sans mesure—engagea le combat contre cet adversaire d’une force extrême. Frappé à mort par Kṛṣṇa, il perdit la vie et demeura à jamais étendu sur le champ de bataille, tel un arbre karṇikāra arraché par un vent violent. L’image souligne que même la puissance la plus orgueilleuse s’effondre lorsqu’elle se dresse contre une force juste, conduite par le divin.

Word by Word

• {'tatraiva': 'right there, on that very spot', 'tena': 'with him

• by that (foe)', 'asya': 'of him', 'babhūva': 'there occurred

• came to be', 'yuddham': 'battle, combat', 'mahābalena': 'by/with the very mighty one', 'atibalasya': 'of the exceedingly strong', 'viṣṇoḥ': 'of Viṣṇu (here, Kṛṣṇa as the divine power)', 'śete': 'lies, rests (on the ground)', 'sa': 'he', 'kṛṣṇena': 'by Kṛṣṇa', 'hataḥ': 'slain, struck down', 'parāsuḥ': 'bereft of life

• dead', 'vātinā': 'by the wind/storm', 'iva': 'like, as if', 'unmathitaḥ': 'uprooted, violently torn out', 'karṇikāraḥ': 'karṇikāra tree (a flowering tree

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Sañjaya
• Kṛṣṇa
• Viṣṇu
• Narakāsura
• battlefield
• karṇikāra tree
• wind/storm

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights the moral that sheer physical might and arrogance are fragile when opposed by dharmic, divinely aligned action; death comes swiftly to those who stand against righteous order, and poetic imagery (the uprooted tree) stresses impermanence and the decisive fall of adharma.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya describes a fierce combat in which Kṛṣṇa (identified with Viṣṇu) fights an extremely powerful enemy (identified in the accompanying Hindi as Narakāsura) and kills him; the slain foe lies on the battlefield like a tree uprooted by a storm.