Shloka 55
Duryodhana’s Post-Duel Lament and Instructions (भग्नसक्थस्य विलापः)
एतच्च कदन कृत्वा शत्रूणामपकारिणाम्
etac ca kadanaṃ kṛtvā śatrūṇām apakāriṇām
शत्रुओं—जो पहले अपकार कर चुके थे—उनके विरुद्ध यह विनाशकारी कर्म करके वैषम्पायन ने आगे कहा—युद्ध की कठोर रीति में यह करुणा से नहीं, वैर और आघात से प्रेरित प्रतिशोध था।
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The line highlights the war-ethic of retaliation: enemies are characterized as 'harm-doers,' and the ensuing destruction is presented as a response to injury. It implicitly raises the Mahābhārata’s recurring tension between necessary martial duty and the moral cost of violence.
Vaiśampāyana, as narrator, marks that a destructive action—slaughtering or cutting down hostile opponents—has been carried out, and he proceeds from that completed act to the next development in the battle narrative.