Shloka 6
धृष्टद्युम्नस्तु विरथो हताश्वो हतसारथि: । गृहीत्वा परिघं घोरं कर्णस्याश्वानपीपिषत्,घोड़े और सारथिके मारे जानेपर रथहीन हुए धृष्टद्युम्नने एक भयंकर परिघ उठाकर उसके द्वारा कर्णके घोड़ोंको पीस डाला
sañjaya uvāca |
dhṛṣṭadyumnas tu viratho hatāśvo hatasārathiḥ |
gṛhītvā parighaṃ ghoraṃ karṇasyāśvān apīpiṣat ||
Sanjaya said: Dhrishtadyumna, now deprived of his chariot—his horses slain and his charioteer killed—seized a dreadful iron club and, driven by the ruthless logic of battle, crushed Karna’s horses. In the moral haze of war, the act shows how combatants, once stripped of their own supports, turn to sheer force to disable the enemy’s means of fighting, intensifying the spiral of violence.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how war pressures warriors into increasingly harsh measures: when one’s own supports (chariot, horses, charioteer) are destroyed, survival and victory often drive a turn to brute force aimed at disabling the opponent’s capacity to fight. It implicitly raises the ethical tension between kṣatriya duty in battle and the dehumanizing escalation that battle produces.
Dhrishtadyumna has become chariotless because his horses and charioteer have been killed. He picks up a fearsome parigha (heavy iron club) and uses it to crush Karna’s horses, thereby crippling Karna’s chariot-mobility in the ongoing combat.