Mahabharata — Shalya Parva, Shloka 663

Chapter 23: Śakuni Reports, Kaurava Advance, and Arjuna’s Penetration of the Host

Devanagari script

तावकानां परेषां च परस्परवधैषिणाम्‌ | फिर तो परस्पर वधकी इच्छावाले आपके और शत्रुपक्षके सैनिकोंमें प्राणोंका मोह छोड़कर भयंकर युद्ध होने लगा

Transliteration

tāvakānāṁ pareṣāṁ ca parasparavadheṣiṇām |

Translation

Sañjaya disse: Entre os teus guerreiros e os do lado adversário—cada qual desejoso da destruição do outro—o apego à vida se desfez, e começou uma terrível matança mútua na batalha.

Word by Word

• तावकानाम्: of your (people/soldiers)
• तावकानाम्: Adhikarana
• Type: Adjective
• Root: तावक
• Form: Masculine, Genitive, Plural

• परेषाम्: of the others/enemies
• परेषाम्: Adhikarana
• Type: Adjective
• Root: पर
• Form: Masculine, Genitive, Plural

• च: and
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: च

• परस्पर-वधैषिणाम्: of those desiring mutual slaughter
• परस्पर-वधैषिणाम्: Adhikarana
• Type: Adjective
• Root: परस्परवधैषिन्
• Form: Masculine, Genitive, Plural

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Sañjaya
• Kaurava army (tāvakāḥ)
• Pandava army (pare)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights how, once combatants become fixed on mutual destruction, fear of death and attachment to life can be eclipsed by rage, duty, or fatal resolve—raising an ethical warning about the dehumanizing momentum of war.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya reports to Dhṛtarāṣṭra that both armies—Kauravas and their opponents—are locked in a fierce engagement, each seeking the other’s death, and the battle turns terrifyingly intense.