Shloka 31
यस्य कार्यमकार्य वा युध्यत: स्यात् सम॑ रणे । त॑ं कथं ब्राह्मण ब्रूया: क्षत्रियं वा धनंजय,धनंजय! रणभूमिमें युद्ध करते समय जिसके लिये कर्तव्य और अकर्तव्य दोनों समान हों, उसे तुम ब्राह्मण अथवा क्षत्रिय कैसे कह सकते हो?
yasya kāryam akāryaṃ vā yudhyataḥ syāt samaṃ raṇe | taṃ kathaṃ brāhmaṇa brūyāḥ kṣatriyaṃ vā dhanañjaya dhanañjaya ||
ಧನಂಜಯನೇ! ರಣಭೂಮಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಯುದ್ಧಿಸುತ್ತಿರುವಾಗ ಯಾರಿಗೆ ಕಾರ್ಯ-ಅಕಾರ್ಯ ಎರಡೂ ಸಮಾನವಾಗಿಬಿಡುತ್ತವೋ, ಅವನನ್ನು ನೀನು ಬ್ರಾಹ್ಮಣನೆಂದಾಗಲಿ ಕ್ಷತ್ರಿಯನೆಂದಾಗಲಿ ಹೇಗೆ ಹೇಳಬಲ್ಲೆ?
धष्टहुम्न उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse argues that social identity (brāhmaṇa/kṣatriya) is meaningful only when grounded in dharmic discernment. If a fighter treats right action and forbidden action as identical in battle, he has abandoned the ethical criteria that define righteous conduct, and thus cannot be properly classified by those ideals.
Dhṛṣṭadyumna challenges Dhanañjaya (Arjuna) with a pointed ethical question arising from battlefield conduct: if someone fighting has no distinction between duty and non-duty, on what basis can he be called a brāhmaṇa or a kṣatriya? The remark functions as a critique of moral confusion and a demand for principled warfare.