Shloka 190
अनुक्रमणिकाध्यायः (Anukramaṇikā Adhyāya) — Invocation, Narrator Frame, and Textual Scope
यदाश्रौषं व्यूहमभेद्यमन्यै- भरिद्वाजेनात्तशस्त्रेण गुप्तम् । भित्त्वा सौभद्रं वीरमेकं प्रविष्टं तदा नाशंसे विजयाय संजय,संजय! स्वयं भारद्वाज द्रोणाचार्य अपने हाथमें शस्त्र उठाकर उस चक्रव्यूहकी रक्षा कर रहे थे, जिसको कोई दूसरा तोड़ ही नहीं सकता था, परंतु सुभद्रानन्दन वीर अभिमन्यु अकेला ही छित्न-भिन्न करके उसमें घुस गया, जब यह बात मेरे कानोंतक पहुँची, तभी मेरी विजयकी आशा लुप्त हो गयी
yadāśrauṣaṁ vyūham abhedyam anyair bharadvājena āttaśastreṇa guptam | bhittvā saubhadraṁ vīram ekaṁ praviṣṭaṁ tadā nāśaṁse vijayāya sañjaya sañjaya ||
When I heard that the battle-formation—deemed unbreakable by others—was being guarded by Bhāradvāja’s son, Drona, with weapons in hand, yet that the heroic son of Subhadrā, Abhimanyu, had single-handedly shattered it and entered within, then, Sañjaya—Sañjaya!—my hope of victory collapsed. The report exposes a grim ethical tension: even the strongest strategic defenses, upheld by renowned teachers, can be undone by solitary valor, and such valor can also foreshadow a tragic, unfair outcome in war.
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how confidence based on power, reputation, or strategy can be overturned by extraordinary courage—and it hints at the ethical fragility of war, where a lone hero’s breakthrough may lead not to fair combat but to a morally troubling outcome.
The speaker tells Sañjaya that he heard Abhimanyu, alone, broke into the supposedly unbreakable battle-array guarded by Drona; upon hearing this, the speaker’s expectation of victory vanished.