Shloka 2
सैन्यसंनिवेशः (Sainyasaṃniveśaḥ) — Deployment, Omens, and Yuddha-Dharma Conventions
वैशग्पायन उवाच यथा युयुधिरे वीरा: कुरुपाण्डवसोमका: । कुरुक्षेत्रे तपःक्षेत्रे शृणु त्वं पृथिवीपते
vaiśampāyana uvāca | yathā yuyudhire vīrāḥ kuru-pāṇḍava-somakāḥ | kuru-kṣetre tapaḥ-kṣetre śṛṇu tvaṃ pṛthivī-pate ||
Вайшампаяна сказал: «О владыка земли, слушай, как я поведаю, каким образом героические куру, пандавы и сомаки сражались на Курукшетре — освящённой как поле подвижничества, — где битва оружия развернулась на земле, исполненной нравственного и духовного смысла.»
वैशग्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames the coming battle as more than a political conflict: it occurs on Kurukṣetra, explicitly called a ‘tapaḥ-kṣetra’, suggesting that actions in war are inseparable from dharma, merit, and moral accountability—especially for rulers and warriors.
The narrator Vaiśampāyana addresses the king (Janamejaya) and begins his account of how the Kurus, Pāṇḍavas, and their allies the Somakas fought at Kurukṣetra, setting the stage for the detailed war narrative of the Bhīṣma Parva.