Shloka 95
Adhyāya 141 — Night duels: Śaineya and Bhūriśravas; Droṇi and Ghaṭotkaca; Bhīma and Duryodhana
पुन: पुनस्तूबरक मूढ औदरिकेति च । अकृतास्त्रक मा योत्सीर्बाल संग्रामकातर,“ओ बिना दाढ़ी-मूछके नपुंसक! ओ मूर्ख! अरे पेटू! तू तो अस्त्र-शस्त्रोंके ज्ञानसे सर्वथा शून्य है। युद्धभीरु कायर! छोकरे! अब फिर कभी युद्ध न करना
punaḥ punaḥ stubaraka mūḍha audarike ti ca | akṛtāstraka mā yotsīr bāla saṅgrāmakātara ||
Sañjaya said: Again and again he reviled him—“You eunuch without beard or moustache! You fool! You glutton! You are utterly untrained in the science of weapons. O war-shy coward, mere boy—do not fight again!” The speech is not counsel but humiliation: it weaponizes shame and masculinity to break an opponent’s resolve, showing how, amid the fury of battle, ethical restraint in speech can collapse into cruelty.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
Even in war, speech has moral weight: repeated abuse and shaming may function as psychological warfare, but it also reveals a lapse of restraint (dama) and compassion, contrasting with dharmic ideals of measured, truthful, and non-cruel speech.
In the midst of the Drona Parva’s intense fighting, a warrior is being repeatedly taunted and discouraged from returning to combat. Sañjaya reports the harsh insults—calling him unmanly, foolish, gluttonous, untrained in arms, and cowardly—aimed at undermining his courage and status.