Shloka 38

Devanagari script

यतमाना: पराक्रान्ता: परस्परजिगीषव:

Transliteration

yatamānāḥ parākrāntāḥ parasparajigīṣavaḥ

Translation

यतमानाः पराक्रान्ताः परस्परजिगीषवः।

Word by Word

• यतमाना: striving, exerting themselves
• यतमाना: Karta
• Type: Adjective
• Root: यतमान (यत् + शानच्)
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Plural

• पराक्रान्ता: having advanced; valiant, pressing forward
• पराक्रान्ता: Karta
• Type: Adjective
• Root: पराक्रान्त (परा + क्रम् + क्त)
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Plural

• परस्पर-जिगीषव: desirous of conquering one another
• परस्पर-जिगीषव: Karta
• Type: Adjective
• Root: जिगीषु (गम्/जि धातु से desiderative; √जि 'to conquer')
• Form: Masculine, Nominative, Plural

Speaker

संजय उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Sañjaya

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse highlights how virtues like effort and valor can be ethically ambiguous in war: the same disciplined striving becomes morally fraught when driven by mutual conquest and competitive hatred rather than dharmic restraint.

What is happening in the narrative?

Sañjaya describes the combatants as intensely engaged—each side pressing forward with courage and exertion, mutually intent on defeating the other in the ongoing battle of Droṇa Parva.