Shloka 16
Bhagadatta’s Astra and the Fall of the Prāgjyotiṣa King (भगदत्त-वधः / वैष्णवास्त्र-प्रसङ्गः)
तदेव तव पुत्रस्य राजन् दुर्द्यृतदेविन: । कृते क्षत्रविनाशाय धनुरायच्छदर्जुन:,महाराज! विजयी अर्जुनने युद्धमें शत्रुओंकी अश्रुधाराको बढ़ानेवाले जिस धनुषको कभी निष्पाप भरतवंशियोंका कल्याण करनेके लिये नवाया था, उसीको कपटटद्यूत खेलनेवाले आपके पुत्रके अपराधके कारण सम्पूर्ण क्षत्रियोंका विनाश करनेके लिये हाथमें लिया
tad eva tava putrasya rājan durdyūtadevinaḥ | kṛte kṣatravināśāya dhanur āyacchad arjunaḥ ||
Sañjaya said: O King, it was because of your son—whose fate was bound up with crooked gambling—that Arjuna took up that very bow, now for the destruction of the kṣatriyas. The weapon once bent for the welfare of the blameless Bharatas is, through the wrongdoing born of deceitful dice-play, turned toward a ruinous war.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
Unrighteous actions—here, deceitful gambling and the injustice it enabled—set in motion consequences that engulf even the innocent; personal wrongdoing can become the cause of collective catastrophe, turning instruments meant for protection into tools of destruction.
Sañjaya tells Dhṛtarāṣṭra that Arjuna has taken up his bow for a war that will destroy the kṣatriya hosts, and he frames this as a direct outcome of Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s son’s culpability rooted in crooked dice-play.