Shloka 39

Devanagari script

हतभूयिष्ठयोधं तत्‌ कृत्वा तव बल॑ बली

Transliteration

hatabhūyiṣṭhayodhaṃ tat kṛtvā tava balaṃ balī

Translation

Sañjaya said: Having thus reduced your army to a force in which most of the warriors were slain, that mighty one brought about this state of your host—an outcome heavy with the moral weight of war’s devastation.

Word by Word

हतभूयिष्ठयोधम्the army/host whose warriors were mostly slain

तत्that

कृत्वाhaving made/done

तवof you/your

बलम्army/strength

बलीthe strong one; mighty (man)

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

Sañjaya

Dhṛtarāṣṭra (implied by 'tava')

Kaurava army (tava balam)

a mighty warrior (balī; unspecified in this fragment)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Cross References

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Even when framed as heroic might (balī), the verse foregrounds the grim ethical reality of war: power is measured here by the capacity to annihilate, and the narrative invites reflection on the cost—an army reduced because most warriors are slain.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra that a powerful combatant has caused the Kaurava host to become an army with most of its warriors killed—indicating a severe reversal and near-ruin of Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s forces.