Shloka 6

Adhyāya 48 — Duryodhana’s Account of Tribute and the Provisioned Court (सभा पर्व, अध्याय ४८)

Devanagari script

धनंजयेन गाण्डीवमक्षय्यौ च महेषुधी । लब्धान्यस्त्राणि दिव्यानि तोषयित्वा हुताशनम्‌,अर्जुनने अग्निदेवको संतुष्ट करके गाण्डीव धनुष, अक्षय तरकस तथा कितने ही दिव्य अस्त्र प्राप्त किये हैं। उस श्रेष्ठ धनुषके द्वारा तथा अपनी भुजाओंके बलसे उन्होंने समस्त राजाओंको वशमें किया है, अत: इसके लिये शोककी क्या आवश्यकता है?

Transliteration

dhanañjayena gāṇḍīvam akṣayyau ca maheṣudhī | labdhāny astrāṇi divyāni toṣayitvā hutāśanam ||

Translation

Duryodhana berkata: “Dhanañjaya (Arjuna), setelah menyenangkan Hutāśana (Agni), memperoleh busur Gāṇḍīva, dua tabung anak panah besar yang tidak pernah habis, serta banyak senjata langit. Dengan busur unggul itu dan kekuatan lengannya sendiri, dia menundukkan semua raja; maka apakah sebab untuk berdukacita tentang hal ini?”

Word by Word

• {'dhanañjaya': 'Arjuna

• ‘conqueror of wealth’ (epithet)', 'gāṇḍīvam': 'the famed bow Gāṇḍīva', 'akṣayyau': 'two inexhaustible (never-depleted)', 'maheṣudhī': 'great quivers (containers of arrows)', 'labdhāni': 'obtained, acquired', 'astrāṇi': 'weapons (especially missile weapons, often mantra-empowered)', 'divyāni': 'celestial, divine', 'toṣayitvā': 'having pleased, having satisfied', 'hutāśanam': 'Agni, the fire-god

• ‘eater of oblations’', 'śreṣṭha': 'excellent, best (implied by context: ‘that superior bow’)', 'bhujabala': 'strength of the arms

• personal prowess', 'vaśam': 'under control, subjugated', 'śoka': 'grief, lamentation', 'kim āvaśyakam': 'what necessity/need? (sense conveyed by ‘what need of grief?’)'}

Speaker

दुर्योधन उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Duryodhana
• Dhanañjaya (Arjuna)
• Hutāśana (Agni)
• Gāṇḍīva
• Akṣaya quivers (two inexhaustible quivers)
• Divine weapons (divyāni astrāṇi)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights how divine favor and personal effort combine to produce extraordinary capability; it also shows how political speech reframes events—Duryodhana minimizes lament by presenting Arjuna’s rise as a straightforward result of earned boons and prowess, implying that grief is unproductive compared to strategic response.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Sabha Parva context of courtly deliberation and rivalry, Duryodhana points to Arjuna’s acquisition of the Gāṇḍīva, inexhaustible quivers, and celestial weapons after pleasing Agni, and argues that Arjuna’s subsequent subjugation of kings was enabled by these advantages—therefore, he questions why anyone should grieve about it.