Shloka 182
अनुक्रमणिकाध्यायः (Anukramaṇikā Adhyāya) — Invocation, Narrator Frame, and Textual Scope
यदाश्रौष॑ भीष्मममित्रकर्शनं निघ्नन्तमाजावयुतं रथानाम् । नैषां कश्चिद् वध्यते ख्यातरूप- स््तदा नाशंसे विजयाय संजय,जब मैंने सुना कि शत्रुघाती भीष्म रणांगणमें प्रतिदिन दस हजार रथियोंका संहार कर रहे हैं, परंतु पाण्डवोंका कोई प्रसिद्ध योद्धा नहीं मारा जा रहा है, संजय! तभी मैंने विजयकी आशा छोड़ दी
yadāśrauṣaṃ bhīṣmam amitrakarṣaṇaṃ nighnantam ājāv ayutaṃ rathānām | naiṣāṃ kaścid vadhyate khyātarūpas tadā nāśaṃse vijayāya saṃjaya ||
When I heard that Bhīṣma, the crusher of foes, was slaying in battle ten thousand chariot-warriors, yet that none among the Pāṇḍavas’ renowned champions was being killed, then, Saṃjaya, I ceased to hope for victory. The report suggested a grim imbalance: immense slaughter was occurring, but it was not breaking the enemy’s moral and strategic backbone—so the prospect of a righteous and decisive triumph appeared to slip away.
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how outcomes in war are judged not merely by the scale of killing but by whether decisive, renowned leaders are neutralized; when slaughter fails to weaken the opponent’s key champions, confidence in victory collapses—revealing the tension between martial prowess and the larger moral-strategic meaning of success.
The speaker tells Saṃjaya that he heard of Bhīṣma’s tremendous battlefield slaughter—ten thousand chariot-warriors—yet none of the Pāṇḍavas’ famous fighters were falling; from this he inferred that the enemy’s strength remained intact and therefore he abandoned hope of victory.