Shloka 17

Duryodhana’s Account of Gandharva Defeat and the Pandavas’ Intervention (दुर्योधनवर्णितो गन्धर्वसंग्रामः)

Devanagari script

अजातशयत्रौ तु जिते निकृत्या दुःशासनो यत्‌ परुषाण्यवोचत्‌ । तानि प्रविष्टानि वृकोदराड्ू दहन्ति कक्षाग्निरिवेन्धनानि,“अजातशत्रु युधिष्ठिरको जूएमें छलपूर्वक हरा दिये जानेपर दुःशासनने जो कड़वी बातें कही थीं, वे भीमसेनके शरीरमें घुसकर जैसे आग तृण और काष्ठके समूहको जला डालती है, उसी प्रकार उन्हें दग्ध कर रही होंगी

Transliteration

ajātaśatrau tu jite nikṛtyā duḥśāsano yat paruṣāṇy avocat | tāni praviṣṭāni vṛkodarāḍ dahanti kakṣāgnir ivendhanāni ||

Translation

Vaiśampāyana berkata: Ketika Ajātaśatru (Yudhiṣṭhira) ditewaskan maruahnya dengan tipu daya, kata-kata kasar yang diucapkan Duḥśāsana meresap ke dalam Bhīma (Vṛkodara) seperti api yang melahap; ia membakar di dalam dirinya sebagaimana kebakaran rimba memakan bahan kering.

Word by Word

• {'ajātaśatrau': 'in/with regard to Ajātaśatru (epithet of Yudhiṣṭhira, ‘one whose enemy is not yet born’)', 'tu': 'but

• moreover', 'jite': 'when (he was) conquered/defeated', 'nikṛtyā': 'by deceit, fraud, treachery', 'duḥśāsanaḥ': 'Duḥśāsana (a Kaurava prince)', 'yat': 'which

• that which', 'paruṣāṇi': 'harsh, cruel, bitter (words)', 'avocat': 'said

• spoke', 'tāni': 'those (words)', 'praviṣṭāni': 'having entered

• penetrated', 'vṛkodara': 'Vṛkodara (epithet of Bhīma, ‘wolf-bellied’)', 'dahanti': 'burn

• consume', 'kakṣāgniḥ': 'a brush/forest fire

• fire in dry grass and thickets', 'iva': 'like

• as', 'indhanāni': 'fuel

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Vaiśaṃpāyana
• Ajātaśatru (Yudhiṣṭhira)
• Duḥśāsana
• Vṛkodara (Bhīma)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Cruel speech and deceitful victory are not merely momentary wrongs; they lodge in the victim’s mind as a lasting moral injury, igniting anger and a drive for justice. The verse warns that adharma—especially fraud and verbal cruelty—creates consequences that spread like fire, destabilizing relationships and pushing events toward violent reckoning.

What is happening in the narrative?

After Yudhiṣṭhira (Ajātaśatru) is defeated in the dice game through trickery, Duḥśāsana utters bitter, insulting words. Vaiśaṃpāyana describes how those words ‘enter’ Bhīma (Vṛkodara) and burn inside him like a forest fire consuming fuel—signaling Bhīma’s simmering fury and the growing momentum toward future vengeance.