Shloka 38

Devanagari script

यतमाना: पराक्रान्ता: परस्परजिगीषव:

Transliteration

yatamānāḥ parākrāntāḥ parasparajigīṣavaḥ

Translation

サンジャヤは言った。彼らは力の限り励み、武勇に満ちて、互いに凌ごうとした――誰もが相手に勝つことのみを念じていた。この一句は戦の道義的緊張を示す。鍛錬と勇気は確かにあるが、それは自制や和解ではなく、競争と征服へと駆り立てられているのだ。

Word by Word

• यतमाना: striving, exerting themselves
• यतमाना: Karta
• Type: Adjective
• Root: यतमान (यत् + शानच्)
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Plural

• पराक्रान्ता: having advanced; valiant, pressing forward
• पराक्रान्ता: Karta
• Type: Adjective
• Root: पराक्रान्त (परा + क्रम् + क्त)
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Plural

• परस्पर-जिगीषव: desirous of conquering one another
• परस्पर-जिगीषव: Karta
• Type: Adjective
• Root: जिगीषु (गम्/जि धातु से desiderative; √जि 'to conquer')
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Plural

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Sañjaya

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights how virtues like effort and valor can be ethically ambiguous in war: the same disciplined striving becomes morally fraught when driven by mutual conquest and competitive hatred rather than dharmic restraint.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya describes the combatants as intensely engaged—each side pressing forward with courage and exertion, mutually intent on defeating the other in the ongoing battle of Droṇa Parva.