Shloka 316
Karṇa-parva Adhyāya 58 — Arjuna’s Arrow-Storm and Relief of Bhīmasena
येनैव ते पितुर्दत्तं यतमानस्य संयुगे । अश्वत्थामाके ऐसा कहनेपर प्रतापी धृष्टद्युम्नने उससे इस प्रकार उत्तर दिया--“अरे! तेरी इस बातका जवाब तुझे मेरी वही तलवार देगी
yenaiva te pitur dattaṃ yatamānasya saṃyuge |
Wika ni Sañjaya: “Sa mismong (sandata) ring iyon na ikinabagsak ng iyong ama habang nagsisikap para sa tagumpay sa labanan…” Nang sabihin ito ni Aśvatthāmā, sumagot ang makapangyarihang si Dhṛṣṭadyumna: “Hoy! Ang sagot sa sinabi mo ay ibibigay sa iyo ng aking mismong tabak—yaong tabak na siyang sumagot na rin sa iyong ama sa larangan ng digmaan.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The passage highlights the grim moral logic of wartime retaliation: personal enmity and the code of the warrior (kṣatriya-dharma) can harden into a cycle where ‘answer’ is given not by reasoning but by the same violence previously inflicted.
In the Karṇa Parva battle narrative, Aśvatthāmā speaks, and Dhṛṣṭadyumna responds fiercely, declaring that the very sword/means by which Droṇa (Aśvatthāmā’s father) was brought down in battle will be his reply—escalating the confrontation through a direct threat grounded in past killing.