Shloka 973
Sauptika Parva, Adhyaya 8 — Dhṛṣṭadyumna-vadha and the Camp’s Nocturnal Rout
नाजानन् पितर:ः पुत्रान् भ्रातृन् भ्रातर एव च । वह घोर अन्धकार फैल जानेपर वहाँ सब लोगोंपर मोह छा गया। उस समय पिता पुत्रोंकी और भाई भाइयोंको नहीं पहचान पाते थे
nājānan pitaraḥ putrān bhrātṝn bhrātara eva ca |
Sañjaya said: In that dreadful darkness, delusion spread over everyone. Fathers could not recognize their sons, and brothers could not recognize even their own brothers—so completely were minds overwhelmed amid the terror and confusion of the night.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights how extreme violence and fear generate moha (delusion), collapsing ordinary moral and social recognition—father/son and brother/brother—showing war’s power to erase discernment and humane bonds.
During the night’s dreadful darkness in the Sauptika episode, panic and confusion spread so widely that people cannot identify even close relatives, intensifying the horror of the nocturnal slaughter and chaos.