Shloka 23
अनृतं तत् करिष्यन्ति मामका निशिता: शरा: । आशीविषा इव क्रुद्धास्तस्य पास्यन्ति शोणितम्,'सूतपुत्र कर्णने धृतराष्ट्रके मतमें होकर अपने गुणोंकी प्रशंसा करते हुए जो द्रौपदीसे यह कहा था कि “कृष्णे! तू पतिहीन है” उसके इस कथनको मेरे तीखे बाण असत्य कर दिखायेंगे और क्रोधमें भरे हुए विषधर सर्पोके समान उसके रक्तका पान करेंगे
sañjaya uvāca | anṛtaṃ tat kariṣyanti māmakā niśitāḥ śarāḥ | āśīviṣā iva kruddhās tasya pāsyanti śoṇitam ||
Sanjaya said: “My side’s sharp arrows will prove that claim false; like enraged venomous serpents, they will drink his blood.” In context, the line frames the battle as a moral reckoning: a boastful, harmful insult is to be answered not by words but by the harsh, violent ‘verification’ of war—revealing how pride and cruelty culminate in bloodshed.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how arrogant, harmful speech and moral transgression are imagined to invite a ‘reckoning’ in the brutal arena of war. Ethically, it exposes the tragic logic of vengeance: false or cruel claims are not corrected through reflection but through escalating violence, where truth is ‘proved’ by bloodshed.
Sanjaya reports a fierce resolve from the Kaurava side: their sharpened arrows will refute an opponent’s earlier boast/insult by killing him, metaphorically likened to enraged venomous snakes drinking his blood.