Shloka 19
Sauptika Parva, Adhyaya 8 — Dhṛṣṭadyumna-vadha and the Camp’s Nocturnal Rout
तुदन्नखैस्तु स द्रौ्णिं नातिव्यक्तमुदाहरत्,उसने अपने नखोंसे द्रोणकुमारको बकोटते हुए अस्पष्ट वाणीमें कहा--“मनुष्योंमें श्रेष्ठ आचार्यपुत्र! अब देरी न करो। मुझे किसी शस्त्रसे मार डालो, जिससे तुम्हारे कारण मैं पुण्यलोकोंमें जा सकूँ”
tudann akhais tu sa drauṇiṁ nātivyaktam udāharat | “manuṣyeṣu śreṣṭha ācāryaputra! adya vilambaṁ mā kṛthāḥ | māṁ kenacid astrena jahi, yena tava hetunāhaṁ puṇyalokān gamiṣyāmi” ||
Sañjaya said: Scratching the son of Droṇa with his nails, he spoke in a muffled, indistinct voice: “O best among men, O son of the teacher—do not delay now. Kill me with some weapon, so that, through your agency, I may depart to the worlds of merit.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights the moral tension around killing: the speaker frames death by another’s hand as a means to reach ‘worlds of merit,’ revealing how, amid war, ethical reasoning can be distorted by desperation and by beliefs about agency, sin, and posthumous destiny.
In the Sauptika episode’s aftermath, a distressed figure addresses Drauṇi (Aśvatthāman), clawing at him and pleading to be killed quickly with a weapon, claiming that death caused by Drauṇi would enable him to attain meritorious heavenly realms.