Shloka 144
अध्याय १४८ — कर्णप्रभावः, धृष्टद्युम्नस्य विरथता, तथा घटोत्कच-आह्वानम्
Chapter 148: Karṇa’s Pressure, Dhṛṣṭadyumna Unhorsed, and the Summoning of Ghaṭotkaca
स देवशत्रूनिव देवराज: किरीटमाली व्यधमत् समन्तात् । यथा तमांस्यभ्युदितस्तमोधघ्न: पूर्वप्रतिज्ञां समवाप्य वीर:,जैसे देवराज इन्द्र देवशत्रुओंका संहार करते हैं तथा जैसे तिमिरारि सूर्य उदित होकर अन्धकारका विनाश कर डालते हैं, उसी प्रकार किरीटधारी वीर अर्जुनने अपनी पहली प्रतिज्ञा पूरी करके सब ओरसे आपकी सेनाका संहार आरम्भ कर दिया
sa devaśatrūn iva devarājaḥ kirīṭamālī vyadhamat samantāt | yathā tamāṁsy abhyuditas tamo-ghnaḥ pūrva-pratijñāṁ samavāpya vīraḥ ||
Sañjaya said: Like the king of the gods, Indra, who strikes down the enemies of the gods, the diadem-wearing hero Arjuna began to smite your forces on every side. And just as the darkness-dispelling sun, once risen, destroys the masses of night, so too—having fulfilled his earlier vow—he set about the destruction of the army, making his pledged word the moral axis of his fierce action in war.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse foregrounds pratijñā (a vowed word) as a binding ethical force: Arjuna’s violent action is framed not as mere rage but as vow-fulfilled kṣatriya resolve, likened to cosmic order—Indra protecting the gods and the sun dispelling darkness.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra that Arjuna, identified by his diadem, has completed an earlier pledge and now begins striking down the Kaurava forces from all directions, compared to Indra’s destruction of divine enemies and the sunrise that annihilates darkness.