Shloka 59
जानन्नप्यनृतस्याथ दोषान् स द्विजसत्तमम् | अव्यक्तमब्रवीद् राजा हत: कुछ्जर इत्युत,असत्य बोलनेके दोषोंको जानते हुए भी राजा युधिष्ठिरने द्विजश्रेष्ठ द्रोणसे वैसी बात कह दी। फिर वे अस्फुट स्वरमें बोले--“वास्तवमें इस नामका हाथी मारा गया”
jānann apy anṛtasya atha doṣān sa dvijasattamam | avyaktam abravīd rājā hataḥ kuñjara ity uta ||
Though fully aware of the moral fault in speaking untruth, King Yudhiṣṭhira said to Droṇa, the best of Brahmins, words that conveyed that message. Then, speaking indistinctly—so that the truth would not be clearly heard—he added: “In fact, it is an elephant of this name that has been slain.” The verse highlights the ethical fracture caused by war: a king famed for truthfulness resorts to ambiguity to achieve a strategic end, and the very manner of speech becomes part of the moral compromise.
कृप उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores that ethical wrongdoing is not only in the content of speech but also in intention and delivery: knowingly using ambiguity to mislead—even while preserving a technical ‘truth’—still carries the taint of anṛta (untruth). It portrays how war pressures even the righteous into moral compromise.
Kṛpa recounts that Yudhiṣṭhira, despite knowing the दोष (fault) of lying, told Droṇa that ‘the kuñjara is slain’ and then added in an indistinct voice that it was an elephant of that name—an equivocation meant to make Droṇa believe his son (Aśvatthāmā) had died, thereby breaking Droṇa’s will to fight.