Shloka 11
अभिमन्युवधः
Abhimanyu’s Fall and the Battlefield Aftermath
“अरे! तेरा पिता कायरकी भाँति युद्ध छोड़कर भाग गया है। सौभाग्यकी बात है कि तू भी युद्ध करना जानता है; किंतु आज तू जीवित नहीं छूट सकेगा”
are! tava pitā kāyara-vat yuddhaṃ tyaktvā palāyitaḥ. saubhāgyam etat yat tvam api yoddhuṃ jānāsi; kintu adya tvaṃ jīvitaṃ na mokṣyase.
「おい！ おまえの父は臆病者のように戦を捨てて逃げ去った。だが幸いにも、おまえは戦い方を知っているらしい――しかし今日は、生きては帰れぬ。」
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The line highlights the Mahabharata’s war-ethic where martial honor (kshatriya-dharma) is publicly measured by steadfastness in battle. It also shows how moral language—calling someone a ‘coward’—is used as a weapon, raising ethical tension between dharma as ideal conduct and dharma as rhetoric in a lethal conflict.
In the Drona Parva’s ongoing battles, a warrior is being taunted: his father is accused of fleeing the fight, while the son is grudgingly acknowledged as capable. The speaker then issues a death-threat—‘today you will not escape alive’—reflecting the immediate, personal intensity of battlefield exchanges.