Shloka 19
Sauptika Parva, Adhyaya 8 — Dhṛṣṭadyumna-vadha and the Camp’s Nocturnal Rout
तुदन्नखैस्तु स द्रौ्णिं नातिव्यक्तमुदाहरत्
tudann akhais tu sa drauṇiṁ nātivyaktam udāharat | “manuṣyeṣu śreṣṭha ācāryaputra! adya vilambaṁ mā kṛthāḥ | māṁ kenacid astrena jahi, yena tava hetunāhaṁ puṇyalokān gamiṣyāmi” ||
サンジャヤは言った。彼は爪でドローナの子をかきむしりながら、くぐもった不明瞭な声で言った。「おお、人の中の最勝者よ、師の子よ。いまは遅らせるな。何かの武器で私を討て。そなたの手によって、私は功徳の世界へ旅立てよう。」
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.