Shloka 48
Droṇa-parva Adhyāya 49: Yudhiṣṭhira’s Lament and Strategic Foreboding after Abhimanyu’s Fall
इस प्रकार श्रीमहाभारत द्रोणपर्वके अन्तर्गत अभिमनन््युवधपर्वमें आभिमन्युको रथह्दीन करनेसे सम्बन्ध रखनेवाला अड़्तालीसवाँ अध्याय पूरा हुआ
Iti prakāraṃ Śrīmahābhārate Droṇaparvake antargata Abhimanyuvadhaparvame ābhimanyuko rathahīna karaṇena sambandha rakhanevālā aḍatālīsavāṃ adhyāyaḥ pūrṇaḥ huā.
Sanjaya said: Thus ends the forty-eighth chapter of the Abhimanyu-vadha section within the Droṇa Parva of the revered Mahābhārata, dealing with the episode concerning Abhimanyu being deprived of his chariot. The closing note underscores the moral gravity of the battle’s escalation, where disabling a warrior’s means of defense becomes a decisive—and ethically charged—turning point in the narrative.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
As a chapter-colophon, the passage does not teach through a direct maxim; instead it frames the ethical weight of the episode by highlighting a pivotal act in war—rendering Abhimanyu chariotless—which signals how combat can slide from rule-bound contest toward morally fraught tactics.
This is the formal closing statement for the chapter: it announces that the forty-eighth chapter of the Abhimanyu-vadha subsection within Droṇa Parva is complete, and specifies that its topic concerned Abhimanyu being made without his chariot.