Shloka 316
Karṇa-parva Adhyāya 58 — Arjuna’s Arrow-Storm and Relief of Bhīmasena
येनैव ते पितुर्दत्तं यतमानस्य संयुगे । अश्वत्थामाके ऐसा कहनेपर प्रतापी धृष्टद्युम्नने उससे इस प्रकार उत्तर दिया--“अरे! तेरी इस बातका जवाब तुझे मेरी वही तलवार देगी, जिसने युद्धस्थलमें विजयके लिये प्रयत्न करनेवाले तेरे पिताको दिया था
yenaiva te pitur dattaṃ yatamānasya saṃyuge |
Sañjaya said: “With that very (weapon) by which your father was struck down while striving for victory in battle…” (Thus, in the narrative, Dhṛṣṭadyumna replies to Aśvatthāmā that the same sword which felled his father in the fight will serve as the answer to his challenge—framing the exchange in the harsh ethic of retaliatory warfare and personal enmity.)
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The passage highlights the grim moral logic of wartime retaliation: personal enmity and the code of the warrior (kṣatriya-dharma) can harden into a cycle where ‘answer’ is given not by reasoning but by the same violence previously inflicted.
In the Karṇa Parva battle narrative, Aśvatthāmā speaks, and Dhṛṣṭadyumna responds fiercely, declaring that the very sword/means by which Droṇa (Aśvatthāmā’s father) was brought down in battle will be his reply—escalating the confrontation through a direct threat grounded in past killing.