Shloka 32
त एव सभ्यास्तत्रासन् प्रेक्षकाश्नाभवन् सम ते । तत्रैषां ग्लहमानानां ध्रुवी जयपराजयौ,जो पहलेके जूएमें दर्शक थे, वे ही वहाँ भी सभासद् बने हुए थे। वहाँ युद्धरूपी जूआ खेलते हुए इन वीरोंमेंसे एककी जय और दूसरेकी पराजय अवश्यम्भावी थी
ta eva sabhyās tatrāsan prekṣakāś cābhavan samāḥ te | tatraiṣāṁ glahamānānāṁ dhruvī jayaparājayau ||
Sañjaya disse: “Aqueles mesmos homens que haviam sido espectadores no antigo jogo de dados estavam ali outra vez, agora sentados como membros da assembleia. E ali, enquanto esses heróis ‘jogavam’ a aposta da guerra, a vitória de um lado e a derrota do outro eram inevitáveis—fixadas como o desfecho daquele jogo sombrio.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames war as a continuation of the moral failure of the dice-hall: the same social and political elite who once watched injustice now preside again, and the ‘wager’ of violence yields an unavoidable binary outcome—someone must win and someone must lose—highlighting the ethical cost of treating human lives like stakes in a game.
Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra that the very people who were spectators during the earlier gambling episode are present again as courtly observers, and that in the present ‘game’—the battle—these warriors are effectively wagering their lives, with certain victory for one side and certain defeat for the other.