Shloka 190
इस प्रकार श्रीमह्मा भारत द्रोणपर्वके अन्तर्गत द्रोणवधपर्वमें युधिष्ठिरका असत्यभाषणविषयक एक सौ नब्बेवाँ अध्याय पूरा हुआ
iti prakāraḥ śrīmahābhārate droṇaparvake antargata-droṇavadhaparvaṇi yudhiṣṭhirasya asatyabhāṣaṇa-viṣayakaḥ ekaśata-nabbēvāṁ adhyāyaḥ pūrṇaḥ
Thus ends the one hundred and ninety-ninth chapter of the Droṇa Parva of the Śrī Mahābhārata, within the section on the slaying of Droṇa, dealing with Yudhiṣṭhira’s utterance of untruth. The colophon signals the moral tension at the heart of the episode: in the pressure of war, even a king famed for truth is drawn into a compromised speech-act whose ethical weight shapes the fall of Droṇa and the narrative’s reflection on dharma under extreme necessity.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The colophon highlights the ethical crisis of the Droṇa episode: dharma in war can force choices where truthfulness, normally absolute, is pressured by strategic necessity. It frames Yudhiṣṭhira’s compromised speech as a pivotal moral event rather than a mere plot device.
This is an end-of-chapter colophon stating that the chapter (no. 199) in the Droṇa Parva—within the Droṇa-slaying section—has concluded, and that its subject was Yudhiṣṭhira’s speaking of untruth connected to the events leading to Droṇa’s fall.