Shloka 8
Adhyāya 86: Irāvān’s Lineage, Cavalry Clash, and the Māyā-Duel Ending in Irāvān’s Fall
तवापराधात् सुमहान् सपुत्रस्य विशाम्पते । पृथिव्या: प्रक्षयो घोरो यमराष्ट्रविवर्धन:,प्रजानाथ! पुत्रसहित आपके अपराधसे ही यह भूमण्डलका घोर एवं महान् संहार हो रहा है, जो यमलोककी वृद्धि करनेवाला है
tavāparādhāt sumahān saputrasya viśāmpate | pṛthivyāḥ prakṣayo ghoro yamarāṣṭravivardhanaḥ || prajānātha |
サンジャヤは言った。「民の主よ、人々の王よ――この大地に起こる巨大にして恐るべき滅びは、御身の過ちによるものであり、しかも御子らをも巻き込んでいる。それはヤマの国を膨らませる殺戮である。ゆえに、この戦の倫理の重荷と、それがもたらす破滅とは、御身の門前に置かれるのだ。」
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
A ruler is morally accountable for the consequences of his choices—especially when attachment to his sons and failure to restrain wrongdoing leads to mass suffering. The verse frames war’s carnage as an ethical result of the king’s aparādha (fault), not merely fate.
Sañjaya addresses Dhṛtarāṣṭra during the Kurukṣetra war, attributing the ongoing catastrophic destruction—killing that ‘increases Yama’s realm’—to Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s culpability, with his sons implicated in the cause and outcome.