Shloka 23
न हि देवा न गन्धर्वा नासुरा न च राक्षसा:
na hi devā na gandharvā nāsurā na ca rākṣasāḥ
Sañjaya said: “Indeed, neither the gods, nor the Gandharvas, nor the Asuras, nor even the Rākṣasas…” (implying that none among these classes could match, withstand, or accomplish what is being described in the surrounding battle narrative).
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses a sweeping negation—listing gods and powerful non-human beings—to stress the extraordinary, near-unthinkable nature of the feat or force being described. Ethically, it highlights how war narratives in the Mahābhārata often frame human actions as approaching cosmic scale, inviting reflection on power, responsibility, and the limits of violence.
Sañjaya, narrating the battlefield events to Dhṛtarāṣṭra, begins an emphatic statement: that not even Devas, Gandharvas, Asuras, or Rākṣasas could (do/withstand) what is being recounted. The line is incomplete by itself and is meant to be completed by the following pāda(s) in the next part of the verse.