Shloka 17
Somadatta–Sātyaki Engagement; Bhīma’s Interventions; Droṇa–Yudhiṣṭhira Astra Exchange
Book 7, Chapter 132
सम्प्राप्तं तदिदं द्यूतं यत् तच्छकुनिबुद्धिजम् । न सभायां जयो वृत्तों नापि तत्र पराजय:
samprāptaṃ tad idaṃ dyūtaṃ yat tacchakuni-buddhijam | na sabhāyāṃ jayo vṛtto nāpi tatra parājayaḥ ||
Droṇa said: “This very game of dice has now come to its destined outcome—an outcome born of Śakuni’s calculating intellect. In that assembly there was no true victory, nor was there any real defeat; for what occurred there was not righteous contest but a ruinous stratagem that corrupted the moral order.”
द्रोण उवाच
Educational Q&A
Droṇa frames the dice match as a morally tainted event engineered by Śakuni’s cunning, implying that outcomes produced by deceit do not constitute genuine victory or defeat; ethical legitimacy, not mere result, determines the true meaning of ‘jaya’ and ‘parājaya’.
Droṇa comments on the infamous dice episode, characterizing it as a court event driven by Śakuni’s manipulative strategy and asserting that the assembly’s result cannot be treated as a fair contest with real winners and losers.